French Staff Maps 1836-1860 1:40000

Researching something else I came across this site.

http://www.geoportail.gouv.fr/accueil

Modern French maps and satellite images with the ability to call up historic maps, the choices being 1:40000 Staff Maps from 1836-1868 or even the Cassini maps.

Now for the really good news. You can download the historical maps and save them on your PC. They save in JP2 files rather than bitmap or JPG however there are ways this can be dealt with.

A good explanation (in French but with lots of pictures) can be found here.

http://www.pedagogie.ac-nantes.fr/55599030/0/fiche___ressourcepedagogique/#tele

An English summary is:-
Download and install the IrfanView software (this should already have the JP2plugin but if you find you cannot open files then you may need to separately install the JP2 plugin).

Load IrfanView and Open a file. These are large and graphically intensive files so you may have to wait for these to load fully (5 mins not uncommon).

Select the Image “pulldown” menu and then select Resize/Resample.
This gives you a menu for changing the image. I have been simply reducing the size by 50 % whilst retaining the Aspect Ratio. You could also just select the size in pixels.

Then select the File menu and Save As and save as a JPG or whatever you prefer to work with.
By this process you end up with a file some 10% or the original. (Note the Cassini ones do not need such severe reduction as these have less content).

That's very neat. Many thanks for posting it Tim.

Switching between the modern maps and Cassini or the staff maps is very easy. Just been looking at the fortress of Briancon in the French Alps. It featured in the War of the Spanish Succession; a particular interest of mine. Found the town on the modern map, and then just clicked on the Cassini pane and it pulled-up the 18th C view of Briancon and the surrounding district.

Martin (J)

Now see https://remonterletemps.ign.fr/

Select Telechargez

Zoom in or search for a town - Rechercher un lieu

Select Carte de l'etat-major then click on one of the map panels

Once the panel is open select Telecharger Gratuitment and wait for the download to finish. The files are typically 100Mb