April 12, 1907 · Compagnie Générale Transatlantique · Dîner
The Château de Chenonceau in the Loire Valley was — and remains — one of France’s most celebrated Renaissance châteaux. Built across the river Cher in the early sixteenth century, expanded by Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de’ Medici, it was a major Grand Tour stop by the late nineteenth century.
The black-and-white engraving of the château is set within a richly decorated Art Nouveau frame in mustard yellow and dark olive. The lower margin advertises the perfume “Génet d’Or” by Ed. Pinaud, who held the CGT menu contract. The pairing of French cultural heritage with French luxury goods on a transatlantic menu is characteristic of the soft-power marketing of the French luxury industry of the period.
This menu belongs to the same CGT “French monuments” series as the Reims Cathedral menu (A17). The series, produced 1906–1910, was a deliberate cultural marketing programme: every menu cover advertised a French heritage destination to American passengers, encouraging onward travel in France beyond the Le Havre disembarkation.
Visual style: Engraving of the Château de Chenonceau (Loire Valley), Art Nouveau frame, printed by Ed. Pinaud.
What you receive
- Three print sizes: 8×10, 11×14, 16×20 inches (300 DPI, ready for any home printer or framing shop).
- Two versions of each size: a pure print (no added text) and a museum print (with a small caption: restaurant or ship, year, and source).
- A 1–2 page PDF with the menu’s historical context.
- One ZIP file, instantly downloadable after checkout.
About the source
This menu is preserved in the Buttolph Collection of Menus at The New York Public Library and is in the public domain in the United States. The Menu Press has curated, digitally restored, and reformatted the work for modern printing.
