Café Parisien

The Café Parisien was a Parisian-style cafe and a new feature on the RMS Titanic. It was located on B Deck starboard just off the Aft Grand Staircase, It was promoted as a replica of a Parisian sidewalk café; painted in white and trellises with live English Ivy and a long red carpet that ran the length of the room. It was designed to occupy a part of the space which on the RMS Olympic served as a rarely used B-Deck promenade. Located on the starboard side, the café was connected to the À la Carte Restaurant via the interconnected hallway. The hallway also housed a recess for coats and hats.

Like the restaurant, the Café Parisien was open from 8:00 A.M. to 11:00 P.M. and shared the same menu and servers. The café was furnished with wicker tables and chairs, accommodating up to 68 passengers, and was decorated in ivy-covered trellises and other climbing plants. A Dutch firm in ratan furniture from Den Hague delivered the yellowish-white wicker chairs. There was a tiered buffet stand in the center of the room and sideboards were sited at each end of the room containing the china service. The Café Parisien was most popular among young adults.

The Café Parisien was a place where friends could meet for conversation with drinks (coffee or a little something stronger) and light refreshments.

The Café Parisien was the first of its kind on any British passenger liner. On the RMS Titanic, this spot was part of the First Class Promenade which ran the full length on both sides of B-Deck. It was later installed on the RMS Olympic and privacy screens were added and double doors added as well, making it enclosed. On April 14^th, the night Titanic struck the iceberg, the menu included oysters, salmon, roast duckling, sirloin of beef, pate de foie gras, peaches in Chartreuse jelly and chocolate and vanilla éclairs.

How it came to be[]

On the Olympic, the B-Deck Second Class Promenade was much larger, extending along the walls of the À la Carte Restaurant. It was soon found that this was a design flaw as diners in the restaurant complained of Second Class passengers staring in at them through the windows while they ate. To remedy this, two new additions were to be made very late in Titanic's construction: The À la Carte would be made to extend further along the port side of the vessel, allowing for additional seating capacity within the Restaurant. Rather than simply extending the À la Carte similarly on the starboard side, however, Thomas Andrews and his team of designers came up with an entirely new innovation: the Cafe Parisien.

During the voyage[]

Although it was a popular place, at the colder evenings and nights like on April 14, with most of the heaters in the ship not working properly, it was simply to cold to sit there for a very long time.

Popular culture[]

In Nacht und Eis (1912)[]

In Nacht und Eis was probably the first film to feature Café Parisien. This room is used by passengers for evening entertainment and chatting with other passengers while enjoying drinks and snacks. The Orchestra is seen playing music in the background, while Captain Smith greets the passengers.

When the Titanic hit the iceberg, the room shook violently, resulting in the passengers being thrown from their seats. This is clearly exaggerated, because the shock of the iceberg doesn't have a big impact on Café Parisien in real life.

S.O.S. Titanic (1979)[]

In S.O.S. Titanic, Café Parisien is one of the rooms that is often used as place for passengers to socialize. There is a dance floor so the honeymooners can dance there while the Orchestra plays romantic songs (in real life there is no dance in first class).

On April 14th, Café Parisien was used as the venue for Sunday services, instead of the First Class Dining Saloon, as it happened in real life.

Titanic: Adventure out of Time (1996)[]

On the PC game Titanic: Adventure out of Time, the Cafe Parisian serves as a venue that the playable character Carson must visit at least once to retrieve an important item to progress in the mission. In there the player searches for a box of matchsticks which will later be handed over to Max Seidelmann at the smoking room. Optionally, if the player clicks on Seidelmann earlier in the game, they would pass by the Cafe Parisian and meet Colonel Zeitel and Willie von Haderlitz. They will leave behind a tobacco pipe which the player can take to the Turkish Bath and unlock an important clue needed to progress in the mission (but this is optional as the same clue could be retrieved by going through the Wireless Room).