On display outside a French High School, there’s what is claimed to be the world’s largest key.

The key measures around 10.5 metres long, although may have lost its title earlier this year when Bethlehem claimed the crown¹.

It’s still impressive, especially in the fact that it’s completely useless.

Not as large, but much more mysterious, is a 8.5m key lying around a carpark in Denver.

This key doesn’t appear on Live Search Maps² or the Google Street View imagery, so it was either dropped by a careless giant, or isn’t a key at all. So what is it?

Thanks to Felippo & dda.

Sorry folks, no post today.

However, many of you may be unaware that we operate a “backchannel” of sorts over at Twitter, where as well as a feed of all the posts from the main site, we also post some interesting stuff that doesn’t make it on here. So for the many people that don’t read our Twitter page, here the best links that you missed!

• There’s a large police turnout in Providence, RI.
• Apparently, this Australian Graffiti artiste reckons that “TRENT IS BENT“. I wonder what Trent has to say about that?
• French resident captured taking a dump in the street, eew!
• This creepy looking house is covered in stuffed toys.
• The Street View car gets a flat tyre repaired in the tiny town of Paraburdoo, Western Australia.
• Ford Model T driving down the street.
• Wild antelope on Google Street view!
• Flickr: Google Street View car gets a ticket.

If you’d like more like this, subscribe to our twitter feed!

As the Google Street View car drives down this small Parisian side street, we can see an approaching Rollerblader, glancing down the street at the oncoming car.

However the sight of the massive camera mounted to the roof must have shocked the balance out of him, as our rollerblader pirouettes to his knees right in the middle of the road, directly in the path of our oncoming vehicle!

The crash to his knees must have been quite dramatic, as the people on the pavement have heard what happened, and we can see that they’ve turned to see what’s going on. But with the Google car careering towards him, is it going to be lights out for our poorly-balanced hero?!

Fortunately for everyone involved, the Google Car must have slowed in time to save his bacon, as in the next frame our hero is safely on his way down the street - presumably hoping to hell that the Google Camera wasn’t recording when he fell on his ass right in front of it…

This isn’t the first time someone has been captured falling off their wheels in front of the watchful Google Street View eyes, but it is the first time Google has tried to flatten the unfortunate person altogether.

Presumably the evidence will be removed any second now.

Thanks to Street View Fun.

Google is in trouble. The company now has so much money that it’s finding it increasing hard to spend it all - so as a first step has decided to employ a 2 car convoy to capture Street View images!

This means that we get a nice close up of the camera that is used, but strangely it doesn’t appear to be the same as the ones that have been caught elsewhere in either Paris or London.

As has been widely rumoured, it’s possible that this second car is separately collecting 3D imagery using a special laser camera (which bounces off nearby objects to create a 3D map, onto which the street view imagery can be laid).

The two cars rather quickly split up though, so they were probably just setting off from the same place. Of course, there’s always the possibility that new 720° imagery is just round the corner!

Thanks to streetviewfun.

Today, the fourteenth of July, is the French national holiday that is known in English as Bastille day.

The Bastille, a Parisian prison, was stormed on this day in 1789. Along with the Tennis Court Oath, it was the successful capture of the Bastille that marked the beginning of the French Revolution.

The Bastille was actually demolished that same year, and in its location is now Place de la Bastille which, fittingly for Paris, is now a large roundabout. Don’t be fooled however, as the July column at the centre is actually a monument to a different revolution (the one when King Charles X was overthrown in 1830).

To the south-east is the Opéra Bastille, which was completed in 1989 and was intended to replace the old Opéra Garnier (Wikipedia) as the home of the National Opera of Paris. However such is the demand for opera in Paris that the two buildings are both still used - along with three others!

Looking around the streets you can see where the walls of the Bastille used to stand marked out with lighter coloured paving stones. During excavation for the Paris Metro in 1899, partial remains of one of the fort’s towers were discovered and put on display in the nearby Square Galli.

Thanks to Julien, who originally posted a French version of this post over at Google Sightseeing Français!

The first Street View images outside America are now available - Street View has come to France!

Added in celebration of the upcoming Tour de France, the street view images are mostly restricted to the race route (rather than allowing you to explore whole cities).

However, there is lots to see, including the most classic of sights: The Eiffel tower¹.

Street View cars have been spotted all over Europe, so other countries are no doubt on the way.

In the meantime, let us know what you find in France and, if you speak French, make sure you’re subscribed to Google Sightseeing Français.

Thanks: Google Maps Mania

We’re continuing the first annual GSS Desert Week! In time-honoured tradition, we’ll mostly be posting about deserts. For about a week.

Whilst not technically a desert, The Great Dune of Pyla (or Pilat), France, is without doubt the largest sand dune in Europe. The dune is around 500m by 3km and up to 117 metres tall, totaling about 60,000,000 m³.

Worryingly, the massive sand dune isn’t content to stay put, and seems hell-bent on swallowing up the forest and anything else that gets in its way. In tandem with coastal erosion, the dune is advancing inland at a rate of around 5 metres a year - which, multiplied by the dune’s length means that up to 15,000m² of forest is being lost every year.

Roads and several houses have already been obliterated by the dune’s progress, and if its progression continues at the same pace, in 40 year’s time the Biscarrosse road and campsite will too have been lost forever.

See the Great Dune of Pyla’s official website for more info (where they also have a good gallery of photos clearly showing the forest being consumed by sand), or read the painfully factual Wikipedia page.

Ville de Bordeaux is a carrier vessel that has been specially designed to transport various pieces of the Airbus A380 around the globe.

Given that the A380 is the largest passenger airliner in the world, it’s no surprise that the ship which carries it has its own world record (although it’s not as exciting) - Ville de Bordeaux has the largest ever watertight stern door on a ro-ro¹ vessel!

Collecting pieces from manufacturing sites in Germany, Spain and Wales, Ville de Bordeaux can be seen here docked at Bordeaux’s Pauillac terminal, where she drops off the various plane parts. Look closely and you’ll see the cargo door is open, and an aircraft fuselage has been rolled across the pontoon and transferred onto a barge.

This is actually one of two specially built semi-submersible barges which collect the cargo before heading south down the river to Langon, where the aircraft is unloaded for road-transport to Toulouse for final assembly (where, as previously posted, you can see the finished product).

You can follow the full story of A380 transport on the Google Earth Community. There’s also ground level pictures of Ville de Bordeaux on Flickr or see where she is right now with Vessel Tracker.

Thanks to Rene73.