- Title: Sur Le Pont D'Avignon
- Author: Imprimerie Transatlantique
- Date: Saturday October 10, 1959
- Condition: Excellent - some age related toing, all else fine
- Inches: 9 1/2 x 13 3/8 [Paper]
- Centimeters: 24.13 x 33.97 [Paper]
- Product ID: 308741
An attractive large-format French Line dinner menu from the SS Liberté, dated Saturday, 10 October 1959, titled Sur le Pont d’Avignon and produced by Imprimerie Transatlantique in Paris, featuring a vibrant Jean A. Mercier cover illustration of elegantly costumed figures dancing across the famous Avignon bridge above a pastoral riverside vista. Opening to reveal a fully bilingual French–English first-class bill of fare—hors-d’oeuvre, soups, fish, “Spécialité Régionale,” roasts, cold buffet, cheeses, entremets, fruits, wines, and infusions—handsomely set around the ship’s crest and notice that the clocks will be set back forty minutes at midnight, the menu’s verso presents a charming printed musical score and complete French lyrics for Sur le Pont d’Avignon, accompanied by a watercolor vignette of the medieval bridge and town, underscoring the ship’s mid-century practice of pairing themed artwork and music with its dining ephemera.
Background on the Compagnie Générale
Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, commonly known as the French Line, was a major French shipping company founded in 1855 by brothers Émile and Isaac Pereire under the name Compagnie Générale Maritime, originally chartered by the French government to carry mail, passengers, and cargo across the Atlantic. Renamed Compagnie Générale Transatlantique in 1861, the line developed a prestigious fleet of steamships and later great ocean liners—culminating in famous vessels such as France and Normandie—that symbolized French technological ambition and Art Deco elegance on the North Atlantic route between Le Havre and New York.
Through the late 19th and early 20th centuries CGT expanded rapidly, operating dozens of passenger and freight ships and becoming an important instrument of French commercial and cultural presence abroad. By the postwar era, when your 1959 Liberté menu was issued, the company was firmly identified with refined onboard service, distinctive red-and-black funnels, and richly designed printed ephemera that helped make transatlantic travel an extension of French hospitality and style.