Quoting from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-16/letter-flown-out-of-paris-by-hot-air-ballon-in-1870-found/6408654
Letter flown by balloon out of besieged Paris in 1870 discovered in National Archives
By Louise Maher
Posted yesterday at 11:26am
AUDIO: Treasure Trove: Hot air balloon letter (ABC News) http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-16/hot-air-ballon-letter/7164646
A tiny letter flown out of Paris by hot air balloon during the Prussian siege has been discovered in the Brisbane collection of the National Archives of Australia.
The letter was penned in French on December 6, 1870 by a man named A (or Ch for Charles) Mesnier (or Mesmier).
It was addressed to his mother, Madame Mesnier, care of Monsieur Grussin (or Grossin), address 8 Place de la Ville, Pont-Audemer, which is a town in Normandy.
The author expresses his affection for his extended family and describes conditions in Paris, including a meat shortage, as well as the determination of the city's residents to repulse the Prussians.
He also reveals that if his eyesight were better he would enlist with the National Guard, admitting he was yet to see "the tip of a Prussian's nose".
National Archives assistant director-general Louise Doyle said the letter was transferred to the archives in 2001 from the former Queensland Post and Telegraph Museum at the Brisbane GPO, but there is no information about its origin.
"We assume that the letter was donated; it's on its own, there's nothing else that sits around it," Ms Doyle said.
"There would have been a formal documentation of receipt of a donated item but we just don't have that, so it kind of makes it even more intriguing."
Millions of letters sent by balloon during siege
Paris was under siege from September 1870 until the French surrendered the city to the invading Prussians in late January 1871.
During the siege, mail sent by hot air balloon was the only way Parisians could communicate with the rest of France; around 2.5 million letters, stamped and postmarked, were sent out on more than 60 flights.
"It was a formal postal arrangement," Ms Doyle said.
"You wrote your letter, you went to the post office ... and you paid for it to go."
Prevailing winds allowed the balloons to float westwards over the heads of Prussians.
To ensure mail could be sent back to Paris, the balloons carried homing pigeons which later flew letters wrapped around their legs into the city.
A letter full of emotion and fervour
Ms Doyle said she was impressed by the tiny size of the writing in the Mesnier letter and the passionate tone it conveyed.
"When I started reading it, I couldn't put it down," she said.
"I just really wanted to get to hear more of Charles and how he was faring [and] also about the politics.
"It's just charged full of emotion and fervour — and the fact that the community of Paris were going to dig in and they were going to defeat the Prussians."
Charles wrote:
"We cannot succeed in all our attacks but I have the firm conviction, my good mother, that the ultimate success will be for our just cause."
"It was quite an extraordinary period in France's history, but the human element is really fascinating," Ms Doyle said.
Joint archives project between Australia and France
The letter has come to light as part of a joint project between the National Archives of Australia and the Archives Nationales in France.
"We're looking at our shared histories and looking through our ... vast collection here at the National Archives to see what records, photographs, maps [and] plans that we might have that relate to France and our relationship with France," Ms Doyle said.
"And, of course, Archives Nationales is doing the same thing."
According to Ms Doyle, the address the letter was sent to in 1870 is now a dog grooming business.
She has urged anyone with information about how the letter came to Australia, or the fate of the Mesnier family, to contact the National Archives.
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