En L'An 2000: Parisian Aerobus Over City, French Futurist Trade Card
Remarkably prescient about aerial mass transit yet gloriously wrong in execution, this card envisions a Paris-to-Bordeaux passenger airbus combining paddle-wheel rotors, fixed wings, and an ornate gondola cabin — closer to a flying riverboat than any real aircraft. Part of the celebrated 'En L'An 2000' French futurist trade card series, this chromolithograph depicts fashionable passengers aboard a multi-rotor aerobus soaring above recognizable Parisian rooftops, with a human figure on the ground waving upward in astonishment.
This represents genteel Edwardian futurism rather than pulp sensationalism — optimistic, bourgeois, and charmingly naive. It belongs to the soft speculative-fiction tradition of Robida and early Verne, envisioning technology as an extension of comfortable Victorian travel rather than danger or adventure.
“EN L'AN 2000 Un Aérobus. PARIS - BORDEAUX SYLFI”
