Historic visions of the future

A set of 19th century postcards has revealed that's just what French artists thought we'd be doing at the turn of the 21st century. The set of postcards, produced between 1899 and 1910, predict what life would be like in Paris in the year 2000 - and there are some fairly bizarre scenes. The year 2000 may have been and gone - but no one has yet invented a flying fireman, or started playing croquet underwater. And while Parisians haven't as yet replaced the fireplace in their homes with sticks of glowing radium, as one portrait shows, there are some portraits which aren't too far off the mark.