Fotopedia’s new app lets you tour Paris through photos

San Francisco startup Fotopedia has built an online “encyclopedia” of photos. Now it’s trying to create slick, beautiful mobile apps for exploring those images.

It released the latest of these, Fotopedia Paris, yesterday, and senior vice president of business Christophe Daligault described it as “a trip to Paris” that you can take without leaving home.

The company was co-founded by Jean-Marie Hullot, who previously served as chief technology officer at NeXT. The Fotopedia site now has 30,000 members who submit and rate photos, but Daligault said the company hasn’t quite figured out how to create a rich photo experience in the Web browser — which is why it’s focusing on mobile apps, specifically apps on iPad and iPhone, for now.

All of Fotopedia’s apps have a similar design, allowing users to quickly swipe through tens, hundreds, or even thousands of high-quality photos. The Paris app contains more than 4,000 images, as well as virtual trips that group photos into categories like “people” and “fashion”, and a trip builder where users can save their favorite photos and locations.

Daligault was emphatic that Paris is not a travel app per se. It’s not supposed to help you plan a trip to Paris but rather to experience Paris remotely. I’d argue that the distinction isn’t a clear one, because a lot of so-called travel writing is supposed to help readers experience locations they may never visit, but the Paris app is certainly fun to browse even if you’re not flying to France in a few months.

This app is also the first step to creating a larger Metropolis app that features photos from cities around the world, Daligault said.

Fotopedia has raised $6.5 million from investors including Ignition Partners, Banexi Ventures Partners, Ron Conway, Reid Hoffman, Joi Ito, and others. It plans to make money by charging for some apps, like the Memory of Colors app that it collaborated on with photographer Jaime Ocampo-Rangel, and by introducing advertising to its free apps like Fotopedia Paris.

Calling all mobile executives: This April 25-26, VentureBeat is hosting its inaugural VentureBeat Mobile Summit, where we’ll debate the five key business and policy challenges facing the mobile industry today. Participants will develop concrete, actionable solutions that will shape the future of the mobile industry. The invitation-only event, located at the scenic and relaxing Cavallo Point Resort in Sausalito, Calif., is limited to 180 mobile executives, investors and policymakers. We’ve pretty much finalized the invite list, but have a few spots left. Request an invitation.