DancingBearMD

Perhaps my searching skills are lacking, but I was surprised not to have seen any threads about the addition of Paris to Streetview in Google Earth. The level of detail, both in the number of streets they have covered and the very tight interval of photos is just incredible!

luvparee

Can you give us the website address? Sounds like a good time waster!

Thanks!

PalenQ

Gee i thought we were gonna get a Virtual Tour of Flanner.co.uk's estate in the Cotswolds!

Travelnut

Oh, I'm sure someone pointed it out..

You go to Google Maps, put in an address, click on Street View and see the buildings. Similar to the feature on PagesJaunes.fr .....

It is lots of fun.

DalaiLlama

I've pointed out just that in a few of my recent posts.

Google did not take pictures from every street or intersection, so it is a lottery as to what comes up as the actual location when you input an address and switch to street view. Often it is one street over, around the corner, down the block...simply the nearest point from which they took pictures to enter into their database.

Zoom in, pan around - it will give you a great idea of what the neighborhood looks like, right down to the contents of some shop windows nearby, and often you'll find pedestrians staring - the google vehicle must be quite a spectacle in itself with the panoramic roof-mounted cameras.

Photobear

I just spent the last hour virtually walking around the 7th...Next, I plan on the 1st...Then the 5th and onto the 6th...

So cool.

DancingBearMD

You can get to pix from Google Maps with addresses, but if you download the Google Earth program (it's free and great fun) and check the "Street View" box under "Layers" in the menu box on the left side of your screen, then put "Paris, Fr" in the "Fly To" box on the upper left and enter, you will "fly" directly to Paris and you will see little camera logos.

If you zoom in (use the wheel on your mouse if you have one, otherwise there is a bar you can click and drag) you see more camera logos on the streets. If you double click on one of the cameras, you will go right into the 360 degree panorama view at that location. Then you will see a series of little camera icons going up and down the street you are on, and you can click on those to "stroll" down the street.

There is an "Exit Photo" button in the upper right corner that will enable you to pull back up and move around the city. In the aerial view, you can click and drag on the aerial photo to move around the city.

There are several other places in France available, including Lille, Saint-Malo and Marseille. Also Rome, Milan and Florence, although I haven't spent time to see how detailed those might be. New York has been available for some time but may have more detail available now, and they have added a bunch of smaller cities across the U.S.

DancingBearMD

DalaiLama, it may be that accessing through Google Maps only takes you to a certain level of StreetView. If you use the full GoogleEarth program, it really seems like they covered every street in the central city.

DalaiLlama

Thanks, DancingBear, I downloaded, I opened the app, I clicked Streetview under Layers, I entered Paris in Fly To - your instructions say "Enter". There is no Enter to click.
If I hit the ENTER key on my kbd, or the RETURN key, nothing happens.
If I rest the cursor on the forward arrow btton below the Fly To field, a pop-up tells me that this forward-arrow button is to "Play Tour" - but when I click it, another pop-up tells me a long story about missing input etc.

If I simply click somewhere on the main field, the image spins and zooms and I get down to ground level, but in a random location.

How do input the exact location (as I do on the regular Google maps screens) to bring up the streetview of just that location? I have tried by adding the location in the Fly To field, but no dice, I still get random images and locations.

For example, I input in Fly To "Place de la Concorde, Paris"
and I land at the Pont d'Arcole near Hotel de Ville.

What am I missing?
Thanks!

ParisAmsterdam

Google Maps and Google Earth are not quite the same. You need to download and install Google Earth on your computer. The free version is fine from earth.google.com. Google Maps lives online only.

Once loaded go to your location of choice (not all places offer streetview) and zoom in. You click on the silver ball things to go into streetview and can then "walk" almost any street by clicking the little camera icons that go off into the distance.

I have been using this for months retracing our steps from trips to Paris and Nice the past couple of years. When someone mentions a hotel, an apartment or a restaurant I find interesting I usually go have a look with Google Earth.

I get a laugh out of some of the anomalies... you can be going up a street and all of a sudden the light changes from early morning to late afternoon. Or the season can change from high summer to winter just going around a corner!

They have a way of blurring out faces and license plate numbers but you can often see people on the sidewalks looking at or pointing to the "Google Camera Truck" or whatever they use. If you go to the left bank end of the Pont de Sully in Paris you can see what the apparatus looks like as it casts a shadow on the roadway.

2 other cool things... there are pictures that have been added to Google Earth of various sites and locations. If you open a free account with Panoramio.com to upload your pictures to, not only can you add them to appear in your Google Earth but some may be selected to appear on the Google Earth that everyone sees.

As you can guess... I spend WAAY too much time on Google Earth! But what fun! ;^)

Rob

ParisAmsterdam

Dalai,

I have Version 4.3.7191.6508 so it may or may not be different from yours... in the "fly to" box input your destination then click the little magnifying glass icon to it's right...

That should take you to a vantage point high above the location. To zoom in use the controls at the top right of the screen. There's a slider bar to control the zoom...

Once you get closer you can click on one of the camera icons to zoom in closer then click the round silver balls to go into streetview...

Rob

DancingBearMD

If I hit the "Enter" key after putting something in the "Fly To" box it works, but as ParisAmsterdam says you can hit the little magnifying glass and it should do the same. I just put in "Place de la Concorde, Paris, fr" and it took me directly to the square.

Sometimes when you put in something other than a street address it sometimes uses "user-created" input that is subject to error. For example, I've stayed at the Solita Soho Hotel in New York City. If I put in "Solita Soho Hotel, New York City, NY" it takes me to a big overview of the lower half of Manhattan and part of Staten Island. Someone has put a marker for "Solita Soho Htl--Clarion Collection" in Staten Island (the correct location on Grand Street in Manhattan also has a marker).

DalaiLlama

Thanks all. It's the magnifier icon that I ignored. It produces birds-eye view first, and the spheres switch it to groundlevel streetview (as on googlemaps) where available.
I need a vacation just to retrace my last three vacations...

ParisAmsterdam

>>>I need a vacation just to retrace my last three vacations...<<<

Yes, but it won't cost you a thing this time! LOL

DancingBearMD

Just discovered a wierd and wonderful enhancement of GoogleEarth Streetview for Paris. Previously as far as I've seen they only had Streetview for places they could drive a vehicle. Now you can "walk" around the footpaths in the gardens behind Notre Dame and at Versailles! (Not yet in the Tuilleries or Jardin du Luxembourg, though).

DancingBearMD

And here's how they did it:

http://www.physorg.com/news169121582.html

DancingBearMD

FWIW, it turns out there is also GoogleEarth Streetview inside of Paris Disneyland, all throughout the theme park.