Toot toot! This charming French menu dated in the summer of 1901 shows a stream train with precious cargo on board.

It illustrates the start of the melon season in France, which lasts from June to September.

This menu may have been from a restaurant in Cavaillon in the Provence-Alps-Cote d’Azur region of southeastern France, famous for its Cavaillon melons – also called Charentais or cataloup.

Cavaillon has its own melon festival in summer, led by the Knights of the Order of the Melon.

With their green skin and orange flesh, perfectly ripe melons taste sublime and are one of the glories of Provence, sold by roadsides and in markets and in restaurants during those months.

On this menu cover, wheels of camembert cheese run on railway tracks made from baguettes and rolled pastry. A magnum of champagne acts as the train’s funnel, a wooden salt box stands in for the train’s cabin and a sieve is a substitute railway signal.

A little chef is the driver of the train, and another little chef waves a red flag, urging the train to stop so the handsome gourd can be taken straight to the kitchen.

Gallery quality Giclée print on natural white, matte, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom printed with border for matting and framing.