En L'An 2000: Aeros-Parisiens Flying Taxi Over Paris, French Chromolithograph
Like Jean-Marc Côté's celebrated 'En L'An 2000' card series depicting France's imagined future, this chromolithograph envisions a bustling aerial taxi service over Paris, complete with a box-car gondola labeled 'Aeros-Parisiens' ferrying elegantly dressed passengers above the Opera and Louvre. The pilot is commanded to stop at the Musée du Louvre, grounding futurist fantasy in charming Parisian mundanity. The winged craft and cloud-dotted skyline embody Belle Époque optimism about mechanical flight years before the Wright Brothers.
Charming and imaginative rather than lurid, this postcard's appeal lies in its whimsical domesticity — aerial taxis as mundane as horse-drawn cabs. It would delight a collector but wouldn't cause a newsstand scuffle.
“EN L'AN 2000 | AEROS-PARISIENS | OPERA | Pilote! Arrêtez-moi au Musée du Louvre.”
