Bernie Szukalski transmitted this link today in his ArcGIS.com RSS feed. The Carte de France was one of the first national surveys completed on the same scale, 100 toises (a toise was equal to 6ft and the equivalent scale today would be 1:86,400), according to a specific plan. It was led by several generations of the Cassini family (not to be confused with the Italian globemaker Giovanni M. Cassini) starting in the 1740's and continuing through the French revolution and Napoleon's time, to 1815. Four generations of the Cassini family held the position of director of the Paris Observatory, and three of those worked on the Carte de France: Jacques Cassini (Cassini II, 1677-1756); Cesar-Francois Cassini (Cassini III, 1714-1784); and Jean Dominique Cassini (Cassini IV, 1748-1845). The 182 sheets that comprise the map are superb examples of cartographic engraving. The use of trigonometric surveying techniques gave the map a high degree of accuracy for its time. Below you see an area in what is now Flanders:
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