"Les voeux servent surtout à ne pas trop oublier les amis..."

Signed manuscript card of 21 lines by Alphonse Boudard to his great friend and companion of boozy lunches, the Brussels journalist André Tillieu, who was, like Alphonse Boudard, a great friend of Georges Brassens but also of Jean Giono.
An erroneous date (4.1.91) written in blue ballpoint pen on the card by André Tillieu whereas the date of 4.1.90 is indicated at the top of the envelope.
Envelope included.
"Dear André,
good wishes serve mainly not to forget friends too much. I wish you of course health, cash, clear sight, lively step... etc... I'm invited on March 14th to Brussels for a book fair. I'll keep you informed and we could probably grab a bite together on this occasion. Book? I'm undecided... I've said everything I could say. There are still things like Fermeture... I'm starting a collaboration with Détective from January 18th... if you fancy it, you'll be able to read. Louis is in Nice, his wife isn't doing very well... especially in the head, between us... See you soon. All my friendship. Ab."
André Tillieu the Brussels native, very close friend and biographer of Georges Brassens, maintained an epistolary correspondence with Alphonse Boudard for almost thirty years, from 1972 until the latter's death in 2000.
The cheeky Parisian writer very quickly showed him his friendship, considering him as one of the rare critics to understand him perfectly to the point of explaining clearly in his chronicles what he himself expressed only incompletely and sometimes confusedly in his books.
André Tillieu thus became part of the small circle of Alphonse Boudard's true friends on the same level as le Gros Georges (Georges Brassens), le Niçois (Louis Nucéra) and René Fallet with whom he loved to share copious well-watered meals and cycling excursions. As death gradually took away his best friends one by one, André Tillieu remained one of Alphonse's very last pals.