Présentation de nouvelles planches de l'Atlas de France

Summary

This paper presents new plates of the Atlas de France, published by the National Committee of Geography. The first edition, initiated in 1931 and completed shortly after the Liberation, comprised 54 plates and quickly went out of print. In preparing the second edition, the committee initially assumed that only human geography plates required updating. However, consultation with specialists revealed that although geographical facts had not changed, the manner of interpreting and representing them had been profoundly transformed. The author emphasizes the crucial role of cartographic representation in grasping the evolution of human phenomena, as its inexorable precision measures the true scale of change that daily experience tends to underestimate. The article illustrates the needs for revision or complete redesign through several examples: the geological map required the addition of petrographic indicators through additive graphic synthesis to overcome the misleading uniformity of chorochromatic coloring; the population structure map demonstrates how statistical methods (cumulative frequency curves, median construction, inflection points) can determine rational class intervals that reveal coherent geographical regions; distribution maps adopt the dot method, with a statistically determined unit value of 200 inhabitants for population and transparent spheres for cities; the agricultural land distribution map employs symbols differentiated by color and shape, machine-drawn for efficiency. Finally, an entirely new energy map assembles all French energy sources and their transport infrastructure, distinguishing genuine energy creation from mere transformation. These examples demonstrate the considerable evolution of cartographic expression, reflecting both France's transformation during a troubled period and the international progress of cartographic technique.