La Rochelle Travel Poster: Entrée du Port by E. Paul Champseix, 1928

Ports et Plages de l’Océan. La Rochelle Entrée du Port by E. Paul Champseix (1928) captures the romance of arrival at the Atlantic gateway of La Rochelle at the height of France’s interwar travel boom. Designed in the sleek, modern idiom of Art Deco, the poster draws you into the harbor mouth at sunset, when sails cut sharp silhouettes and the water glows with reflected light. Created to entice holidaymakers to the Charente-Maritime coast, it evokes the promise of easy rail travel, sea air, and evenings along sun-warmed quays.

This edition is offered as a high-quality fine art print from The Unique Maps Co., produced on your choice of acid-free archival paper or artist’s cotton canvas. Multiple sizes are available to suit anything from a study nook to a statement wall, with optional conservation framing. Personalization and customization are welcome—add a commemorative caption, a date, or tailor the border to match your interior palette.

Little is recorded about E. Paul Champseix, yet his work places him among the talented posterists active in France during the late 1920s, when elegant geometry, pared-back forms, and vivid color defined the visual language of travel advertising. Champseix’s maritime focus and confident handling of silhouette and gradient align him with contemporaries who distilled place into atmosphere—selling not just a destination, but a mood.

La Rochelle itself is one of France’s storied Atlantic ports, long associated with sailing, seafood, and bright island getaways just offshore. In 1928, posters like this played a pivotal role in promoting coastal leisure to a new mass audience, with railway networks making weekends by the ocean both practical and fashionable. This print preserves that sense of embarkation: the moment you step from city to sea, with the horizon leading the eye forward into holiday time.

The color work is especially memorable. Dominant pink and red tones bathe the scene in a luscious dusk glow, while greens and deep purples cool the water and shoreline—an energetic push-pull of warm and cool that feels quintessentially Art Deco. Angular sails form crisp, architectural planes against smooth, velvety gradients, and the reflections are rendered with just enough shimmer to suggest movement without crowding the composition. It’s a stylish, modernist statement that brings maritime verve and refined nostalgia to contemporary interiors.

A thoughtful gift for Francophiles, sailors at heart, and anyone who has strolled La Rochelle’s waterfront, this print also makes a standout present for birthdays, housewarmings, weddings, Christmas, and Mother’s or Father’s Day—or as a celebratory keepsake for someone recently returned from the Charente-Maritime coast.

If you're not sure what size to order, or you're looking for a custom order of some kind – a different size, a different colour, a special frame – then please contact me. I usually respond within a few minutes.

You can see an example of my fine art personalisation service in the fifth image. Zoom in and take a look. My personalised artwork is always very well received. Take a look at more examples of personalisation.

You can also choose to age your art print to make it look older. This is popular amongst my customers who want their artwork to look like an older, antique print. You can see an example of ageing in the sixth product image, or go ahead and check out lots of examples of other aged artwork.

The model in the listing images is holding the 18x24in (45x60cm) version of this art print.

I can print and frame this beautiful piece of art at sizes up to 3 metres (10ft). If you are looking for a size or framing option that isn't available online, please get in touch.

This artwork is available as a giclée print on acid free archival matte paper, or you can buy it framed. My standard frames come in six colours (black, dark brown, dark grey, antique gold, oak and white), and custom framing is available for an additional charge. My frames are glazed with super-clear museum-grade acrylic (perspex/acrylite), which is significantly less reflective than glass, safer, and will always arrive in perfect condition.