Location: France

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• The National Geographic Institute (IGN) is the starting point for all data licensing, although their site is French language only; i cannot tell exactly what digital data is available at what cost.
• In June 2006, IGN announced their Géoportail, a 2D/3D interface for browsing their entire data catalog.
  • The data itself will be free for non-commercial use only in very rough form (1:1,000,000), licensed commercially for better (1:25,000).  There is a overview in French (pdf), and here is a machine translation into English: IGN_France_GeoPortail_EN.pdf
  • April 2, 2007 –A press release says "The French 3D ‘Geoportail’, scheduled to open to the general public in late summer 2007, will be based on the SkylineGlobe Enterprise solution."
  • August 1, 2007 - A beta of the 3D Géoportail is launched: Découvrez le Géoportail en 3D.  As expect, it uses SkylineGlobe's TerraExplorer IE plugin.  The image and elevation quality looks very good, but as the interface is entire in French it's not clear where the other stuff is (place names, boundaries, etc.)
• on the government site Inventaire Permanent du Littoral it is possible to freely download digital orthophoto of the coast
• Mont Saint Michel
  • "Maquette 3D, temps réel, sur la baie du Mont Saint Michel : le mariage du SIG et de la 3D au service du grand paysage", 2009, modeled in ArcGis and Bionatics' LandSim 3D by Hélène Durand
    
• PagesJaunes 'Ville en 3D' Beta by Archivideo
  • Website with huge, beautiful detailed models of Paris and Rennes
  • As of September 2006, it's definitely a 'Beta'.  Unfortunately they use the Shockwave viewer so the experience is rather constrained: fixed window size and navigation speed, very close LOD distance and lots of flashing and popping as things are paged.  It also suffers from out of control memory usage.  When i tested it, it started at 330MB and 30% CPU at start, increasing gradually to 100% of CPU and over 1.1 GB of RAM (!) even when the browser was minimized.  This brought my machine to a crawl.
  • Aside from the viewer, the city models themselves are excellent.  There are complete textured building models for nearly every single building!  What software or process was used to produce such a massive, detailed dataset?
  • 
  • On September 20, 2006 Archivideo provided some information:
    • The model of Paris: "Data came from IGN (aerial photo like on the GéoPortail, and not very detailed building footprints). About 80,000 single buildings have been automatically created with FastBuilder (textured walls, and roof geometry). About 200,000 trees from different sources created in 3D with FastBuilder. 30 significant buildings like the Eiffel Tower."
    • The model of Rennes: "Data came from the city office (detailed building footprints, DTM, DSM, aerial photo, position of trees). About 50,000 single buildings were automatically created with FastBuilder (textured walls, and roof geometry). About 150,000 trees (textured cross geometry) created with FastBuilder. 100 significant buildings were handmade with a standard 3D modeler (e.g. 3DS Max)."
  • See more about Archivideo on City Modelling: Consulting and Services
• Google 3D Warehouse Cities in Development: Paris
  • In September 2009, Google Earth added 3D buildings for Marseilles
• Montbéliard
  • Bruno Basli (Bruno.Basli@free.fr) has done VTP modelling of the city of Montbéliard in the province of Doubs, eastern France.  Screenshots and video here.
  • He has also written a brief tutorial based on the project (in French).
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• CyberCity AG has a commercial 3D model of Paris, most significantly including building models.
  • As of 2008, they are called CyberCity 3D and they are a collaborative partner with Google in their "Cities in 3D program"
• Rhône Valley
  • September-October 2009 IGN Magazine (French language) has a long article on a project to use LIDAR and simulation to predict flooding, with 3D views by Mme Florence Jacquinod using the VTP software:
    
• July 2, 2006: BBC article Test driving a cityscape describes some virtual terrain projects in France
  • Cannes: "A 3D mock-up was commissioned by the city so planners could peer into the future and see how developments will affect the chic resort's delicate balance."
  • Centre for Building Technology (CSTB) has done 3D lighting studies of Place du Bouffay in Nantes, and bridges in Paris.