This was shown to me as a fun card, of a futuristic submarine, but it turns out to be much more interesting than that...
The title is "En L`An 2000", which translates to "In the Year 2000", and it is one of those things which think that in a hundred years the most fantastic things will have taken place, but then they do not. It is now 2025, and we are still not, unless we are millionaires, going off for the day beneath the sea in our illuminated submarine with huge glass windows that would surely burst.
The images, and we think there are a hundred, were originally grand artworks by famous painters and designers. They started to appear in the year 1899, and went on almost until the rumblings of the First World War. They seem to have been converted into cards from 1901 onwards, just as the century had passed.
And we know that they were also issued as postcards, for none other than Isaac Asimov speaks of owning "a set" in one of his biographical works. However, we do not know if his "postcards" were actually postcard sized trade cards, perhaps even these we show today...
Curiously, they were reprinted in 1999.
Creme Express was not the maker, that was the product, and it was some kind of instant cream drink, available in vanilla, chocolate, coffee, orange, lemon, and pistachio,. said to be be "superior to all similar products and the only true one".
The actual maker was Ch. Jux, at 74-76 Boulevard de Reuilly, in Paris. I have not found much about them yet, but I will continue to fill in the blanks whenever I can