France Wine & Cheese Map 1963 Humorous Thematic Print - Paris, Bordeaux, Dijon, Nantes, Montpellier

Daniel-Louis Derveaux drew this map of France in 1963, titled Fromaiges et Vignobles and labeled Païs de Cocagne, the Land of Plenty, as part of the popular series of historical and thematic maps he issued between 1960 and 1980. Derveaux, born in Paris in 1914 and active until his death in 2010, was an artist who mastered drawing, wood engraving and copper engraving, and he issued more than 50 maps, the most famous of them showing the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. His maps imitate the style of Homann and Blaeu while adding modern thematic content, and this one measures 35.5 by 47.6 centimeters at 1:2,800,000. It shows France in 1963, the year de Gaulle and Adenauer signed the Élysée Treaty.

The map covers France from the English Channel and Belgium to the Mediterranean and from the Bay of Biscay to Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Cheeses are labeled across the country, and the symbols distinguish ewe's milk, in blue, goat's milk, in yellow, and cow's milk, in brown, while the wine regions are shaded and named, including Muscadet, the Loire Valley, the Crus du Jura, the Vignobles du Languedoc, Burgundy and Bordeaux. Two insets along the right border enlarge Burgundy and Bordeaux, the most famous of the wine regions. Derveaux adds jokes as well, labeling the neighbors the Land of Tea Drinkers, the Kingdom of Sauerkraut, the Country of Beer Drinkers and the Country of Pasta Eaters. The sheet is a love letter to French food.

A lover of wine or cheese, a cook who keeps a kitchen full of French labels, or a family with roots in Burgundy, Bordeaux or the Loire will find a witty gift here, perfect for a dining room or a wine cellar. TheMapVault's other French maps are historical documents of provinces, departments and cities, whereas this 1963 sheet is drawn for pleasure, in an antique style that pokes fun at itself. It borrows the manner of the Dutch baroque maps in the collection, such as the Hondius sheets of 1622 and about 1631, and puts wine and cheese where the sea monsters were. Like every print in the collection, it ships unframed and is available in a full range of sizes, from a compact desk piece to a large-format statement print.