by Jack Kessler, kessler@well.sf.ca.us

or down to various French cities using the following,
Latest -- August 1, 2008 -- Browser Wars update: "Geo ref" links to Wikimapia should work in all browsers, currently, just click on the link and the location pops up.
GoogleEarth, however, requires some contortions: in Internet Explorer/IE browsers, click the link, then click "Run" when prompted, and it may help to have GoogleEarth open already -- and if Windows prompts you, select GoogleEarth as your default program for these files -- in Firefox browsers, though, click on the link then "Save" when prompted, then use Firefox to open the file. The GoogleEarth download still is free-of-charge, for either Mac or PC, from,
http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html
And it still is fun, and sometimes even useful but also just plain fun, to be able to see -- from space, and now up close so that you can see the cars and trees and people -- the places on the planet which interest you, including libraries.
Le Var! :-)
--oOo--
Versions of the following have appeared online regularly, since 1992, as a feature of the FYI France enewsletter, ISSN 1071-5916, which is distributed for free via email every month except August. Enewsletter subscriptions may be obtained via email request to: kessler@well.sf.ca.us. The list contains a selection only: additional online digital information resources develop in France every week, on the Minitel and the Internet -- one can be sure only that there are more, not fewer, than what follows online in France now.
Here this file is one of a number made available -- hopefully attractively, all in one place, and relevant to libraries and online digital information work in France and Europe -- as part of FYI France (sm)(tm), an online service to which anyone can subscribe by postal mailing a check for US $45, payable to Jack Kessler, to PO Box 460668, San Francisco, California, USA 94146 (site licenses also are available): please write your email address on the front of your check. Please email suggestions for improvements to me at kessler@well.sf.ca.us
Note: "Minitel" followed by a local France telephone number -- these services are among a quickly increasing number in France which may be reached by a telephone call, either from a Minitel which can do so (European terminals can, but North American Minitel service cannot), or using a V23 modem, available in European computer stores. French scholars will be pleased to see a number of famous resources appearing here. Even cheese connoisseurs will find something familiar. Public librarians everywhere will be pleased to see some very tiny and obscure institutions appearing, and they might note the extraordinary breadth of the French "Bibliothèque Municipale" (not quite a "public" library, but the closest thing) offerings now online.
or you can link / jump over to: