Cartes Blondel Planisphère Politique et Grandes Routes Aériennes.

Description

This is a French-language political world map titled “Planisphère Politique et Grandes Routes Aériennes,” which translates to “Political World Map and Major Air Routes.” Published by Cartes Blondel and printed by Blondel La Rougery in Paris, the map is presented in Mercator projection and scaled at 1:60,000,000, offering a global view.

Across the top, a series of clocks represents the world’s time zones, each labeled by degrees of longitude and showing the corresponding hour, helping to visualize global time differences in relation to Greenwich Mean Time.
The map uses color to distinguish political boundaries, highlighting the countries and territories as they existed at the time of publication. Given the presence of the USSR and colonial holdings in Africa, it likely dates from the mid-20th century. Red dashed lines span the globe, representing major air routes of the era—linking key cities across Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. These routes reflect the early global expansion of commercial aviation and possibly military flight paths as well.

Major oceans and regions are labeled in French, with names such as Océan Atlantique Boréal and Grand Océan, reinforcing the map’s purpose as both a political and aeronautical reference. It’s a striking example of mid-century cartography that blends geopolitical context with the emerging significance of global air travel.