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The Best TOPOGRAPHIC MAP find EVER


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If you haven't discovered this, too bad. Gentlemen, the biggest topographic map score ever...showing satellite pictures and topographic maps together, in as low as 1/12,500 scale, for ALL OF FRANCE, for your IPad, for only six bucks. Check it out and post all your adulation here.

It's called "Iphigenie", and you can find it at your App store. You're welcome.

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There is an online copy of the 1947 Air Survey done in France. It is quite detailed and a great improvement on any map you find in books. Scale is roughly 1:25000.

http://loisirs.ign.fr/accueilPVA.do

Put a name in the Commune recherche box on the first page and click 'ok'. It gives you all the matches to that name. Be warned it does not go down to the very smallest villages so best to stick to the nearest big town and find the exact hamlet when you get to the map.

Click on your choice from the list you are given and it goes to the location on a map window.

The scale box is on the top R/H side and if it is set too high then the Air Photo numbers do not appear in the box on the bottom L/H side of the window. If you do not see a lot of code numbers on the left then shuffle the 'echelle' down to 'Ville' and they will appear.

Go to the L/H box and click on the 1947 numbers. They are right at the bottom for most but it does have earlier photos for the large towns. Paris has a 1933 set you can get for free. Sometimes there are 2 sets of 1947 numbers and if one does not show up on the map click the other and that will.

Once you click on the 1947_F1613-1413_0381 code then on your map small green squares appear.

If you are too close in to see all you want you can zoom out a bit on the scale but not to far up. Halfway between Dept and Ville seems to be the best.

Hold your mouse on the green square and the area on the photo appears.

Click on the square and a new window opens where you see Telecharger la photo (download it) and Voir la phot (view it in java). annuler closes the window.

The preview is really slow and it is much better to download and view it as one of your own pictures.

When you click Telecharger la photo it then gives you the standard options to save the files.

They are JP2 Format and if you do not are not able to open them then you can download Infanview for free. Click on the JP2 photo icon, open it with Infanview. Save it as a JPG or Bitmap and work on it from there.

They are quite big pics - 10-35 mb - but the detail is amazing considering it is all free. Look at the code box and see there are 1945 photos you can get but they are 90 Euros each.

It looks complicated but once you get the first few over it really is quite simple.

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When using those modern topos, keep in mind that many farms have got bigger since 1945, and a lot of hedgerows no longer exist.

I find with Google Earth that if you look close enough you can sometimes work out where the old hedgerows used to be. It's quite hard to fully obliterate centuries of earthworks and the scars are often still visible from aerial shots.

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This isn't just helpful for people doing historical maps. I had put together a fictional map and wasn't sure what to do with it. So I looked over some topo maps and located a similar looking spot. I then checked the WWII history of the nearby town and voila, my fictional map became historical! With proper placenames, battle date, historical units. I even discovered the weather on that day! All because I had matched-up a fictional scenario map with a random similar spot on a topo map. :)

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When using those modern topos, keep in mind that many farms have got bigger since 1945, and a lot of hedgerows no longer exist.

If you use the 1947 photo sets, you don't have to wonder about that.

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