Le Paquebot L'Atlantique was originally launched in 1899 and sailed from Bordeaux for the Brazil and River Plate Line of the Messageries Maritimes Company.

This 1903 menu image of a kangaroo server chewing on a carrot while carrying a picnic basket was created by the French illustrator and watercolor artist Auguste Vimar. Born in Marseille, France, in 1851, he became an illustrator for children’s books and also contributed some of his wonderful animal images to Le Figaro Illustré. He died in 1916. The kangaroo, the baboon carrying a pineapple were part of Vimar’s contribution to the fashion at that time for fantastical art images – later this style of artwork became known as magical realism.

Courtesy Private Collection.