Billed as “A time-travel through more than 2000 years of history: discover Paris’ most famous monuments” Paris 3D provides a virtual tour of many of the landmarks of Paris, and lets you see how the city has developed since its Roman conquest in 52 BC right up to the present day.
Users can take guided tours from the 3D Paris website here or on the accompanying iPad app. A small plugin is needed for your web browser, but installing it should be relatively simple. The site and the app are both completely free.
Through the website you can witness the construction of the Bastille and Notre Dame, navigate through winding stone streets in the middle ages and visit the 1889 World’s Fair to see the appearance of the Eiffel Tower.
The Paris 3D website has been painstakingly built over 2 years by a team at Dassault Systemes, and they will continue to add more buildings and items over the coming years, again all free. Many of the monuments – such as the Bastille – no longer exist in the real world, so this site offers a great way to explore them as they would have looked.
This site would definitely be of interest for History or Modern Language teachers. The site can be explored in both English and French language versions.
It could also be of interest for Literacy lessons as a stimulus for storytelling and descriptive writing in the same way that apps such as Epic Citadel has been used by some teachers.
You can view the 3D Paris website here and get hold of the free Paris 3d iPad app here. Both are free to use.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
Disclosure : I was taken to Paris yesterday to visit Dassault Systemes HQ and to receive a demonstration of the Paris 3D website.
