French amour-propre or grandeur or rayonnement or franchouillisme dictates that for every good thing there must be an equal but botched French thing.

FRENCH GOOGLE EARTH RIVAL CRASHES AND BURNS

June 26, 2006 (The Register) - A French alternative to Google Earth - offering hi-res coverage of the entire country - went into meltdown last Friday shortly after its launch and is still unavailable due to a stampede of punters eager to avail themselves of the free service.

FRANCE, AT THE FOREFRONT OF COME-BACK-TOMORROW TECHNOLOGY
If You Need It Today Use Google Earth, Fabriqué Aux États-Unis

French prez Jacques Chirac chaired the official launch of Geoportail, Yahoo! reports, and quickly administered the Gallic kiss of death to the project by proclaiming:

"This is a step forward for all citizens, which places France at the forefront of new technologies."

Geoportail cost the French taxpayer a cool €6m which the National Geographic Institute used to collate 400,000 aerial photos and 3,700 maps. It reportedly allows users to "zoom in to within 50 centimetres of the ground" and to "switch from aerial views of a site, to detailed maps, charts and geological data".

[Emphasis added. Hat tip: ¡No Pasarán!]

The Register also wonders at Geoportail's pointless censoring of "certain sensitive or military zones" that remain accessible through Google Earth. As of the time of this post Geoportail is still down.

PFFT (What is this?): On the blunt edge 3 | Rayonnement français ½

Geoportail is on and off these days. But when working, it is actually pretty neat and gives higher resolution than GoogleEarth (for France) - I just got a good aerial view of my patio! It will reportedly be fully effective within 2007, this is still a Beta version.

UPDATE: Geoportail is not down anymore. 3D won't be operational though before fall 2006.