Editor’s Note
This article explores how two brothers from a family of shopkeepers have compiled a unique historical record of their city center, using a rich collection of documents, advertisements, and photographs to chronicle its evolution from 1950 to 2000.
Coming from a family of shopkeepers, Pierre and Jean-Charles Diéterlé recount the history of the city center of the Doubs prefecture between 1950 and 2000 through 1,500 documents, advertisements, and photos.
Shortly before his passing in June, Philippe Labro wrote the preface for this beautiful book, which has just been published by Éditions du Sekoya. Its authors, Jean-Charles and Pierre Diéterlé, will present it at the Salon Livres dans la Boucle in Besançon from September 19 to 21. The writer and journalist explains that he met the Diéterlé family through his wife Françoise, who is originally from the city in the Doubs region, and he praises commerce in the preface.
Hailing from a lineage of Besançon shopkeepers, the authors of this encyclopedic document engaged in an exercise of “happy nostalgia.” They patiently cataloged the approximately 5,000 businesses that succeeded one another in the city center from 1950 to 2000, street by street, and even number by number. This painstaking work occupied them for nearly three years, immersing them in archives, old directories, regional press, vintage advertisements, and thousands of photographs by local photographers Bernard Faille and Jean-Paul Tupin.