1946-1947: The Lubinskis' last apartment in France

    Sometime after May of 1946, my grandparents moved out of the tiny apartment on Rue du Parc and into 19 Boulevard Maurice Clerc in Valence, where they lived until early February 1947. Grandpa didn't go into much detail, but this is how he described their two homes in Valence:

    In Valence, we lived at two other residences ... The first where your mother was born. And later, after, we moved into a more spacious, pleasant apartment. 

    Rather matter-of-fact. I only found the address because my grandfather listed it as his permanent address on a form he filled out in February of 1947 when going through customs at La Guardia in NYC:

Grandpa's Customs and Immigration form
Click to enlarge any photo.

    There were streetcar rails running very close to the buildings, and a park or green space was located on the other side, so the light coming into the apartment would be dappled. I found a couple of historical photos of the street on old postcards, but I'm unsure of the year they were taken.   

Maurice Clerc Blvd Postcard
Source: itoldya archives

Maurice Clerc Blvd Postcard
Source: itoldya archives

    The apartment faces slightly south of east, which means that early morning sun would blast in through the windows, particularly in the winter.

Red pin is #19.
The building is fairly deep front-to-back

Google Streetview photo from 2018. The brown door
is #19. I wonder what floor they lived on?
Note the black shelter in the left foreground.

A better view of the black shelter.

    I love the balconies. But I can just imagine my grandmother fretting about the safety of my mom and Aunt Lilly.

Google Streetview photo from 2024 showing cafe seating out front.
I wonder if Grandpa parked his car there, too?

    I couldn't find any photos of the inside of #19, but there's a hotel with rooms to rent just a couple of blocks away, at #5.  

The building with the reddish-orange balcony at left is #5.
#19 is pretty far to the right. It's a darker tan building with balconies,
just past the black shelter noted above.

    Except for this photo showing the view from #5, the interior photos aren't helpful as it's a different building, and it's been thoroughly modernized (though it's quite lovely):

View from 5 Blvd Maurice Clerc
Source: Hotels in Valence

    It's strange to know that my mother lived there, although she has no memory of it (she was only 14 months old when they left France).