Navigation aids for France (1 Viewer)

[Aminthule]

My partner and I are new motorhomers and loving it. Since purchasing my first MH in July we have done around 2000 miles and been away in it for around 40 nights. Next year we fancy going to France and as we live in West Cornwall will use the Plymouth - Roscoff route for ease. I've never driven in France, but have cycled there and most people seem to advise that it's generally not a harrowing experience. In addition to my generally good, but not fallible SatNav I will take the "All the Aires" guides, but what other navigation aids would experienced motorhomers recommend? Is there a good road atlas for motorhomers covering France? Would people recommend some of the tablet/PC based navigation/mapping apps? Any constructive advice would be most appreciated. Thanks.

 

[9526]

For navigation we have satnav and a decent Michelin spiral bound mapbook (French supermarkets sell a good selection)

We tend to use the book on long journeys and the satnav in towns/cities.

Remember, you're never lost, just in a different place

 

[bjandlin]

Co Pilot & a good map for us.
Bj & Lin

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[Just smiffy]

Sat navy is good for getting around and don't forget to change map settings to France when you get there, but other wise if you have no destination in mind just go where it takes you..... That's what a motorhome is about.... Plenty of places to stay where your custom will be welcome.. Enjoy and relax....

 

[bjandlin]

French aires book by Monde de la Camping Car is good. In most French super markets.
Barrie.

 

[Flamenca]

Just satnav and Michelin spiral bound plastic coated pages for me. The plastic pages have the advantage that you can write on them with chinagraph pencils and wipe off when you want.

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[CherryPirate]

I use a 3G Ipad (has a GPS built in ) and run the Tom Tom Europe app (Western Europe is also available and a little cheaper). All updates are free. I also have a 3 sim card with "Feel at Home" and allows me to surf the internet for my favourite French Aires site Campingcar-infos. This site currently has 8552 aires in France alone and organised by District (much like an english county). There are of course may other sites even those that show a 360 degree view of the aire you might want to view.

Hope that this helps

Colin

 

[magicsurfbus]

Camping Car Infos (see post #7 above) free POI files for aires, downloaded a couple of days before you set off, as they're constantly updated.

You might consider getting a Trucker's edition road atlas if available, as these will show low bridges and and narrow streets. We only use an atlas to get the bigger picture of where we're going - we use the satnav for getting around.

 

[DBK]

As already recommended the Michelin atlas is good: Amazon product ASIN 2067200291But a map of the whole of France is also very useful for large scale planning. If you intend to do any walking a larger scale map helps enormously, local tourist offices can sometimes help but the 1:100K IGN maps show the main GR footpaths and the minor roads. At that scale you won't see everything but they are pretty good. For proper hill walking 1:25K is much better as would be a proper GPS like the Garmin eTrex 30.

Deciding where to go is a different matter entirely. We've used Lonely Planet and Rough Guides in the past but are now converted to the DK Eyewitness books like this one: Amazon product ASIN 1409370178They do one for the whole of France as well which is a good start for an overview of the country.

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[laneside]

We have spent a fair time touring France and now live there and yes satnav is very useful especially if you use co ordinates, definitely not postcodes in France. Yes you need a good map and much patience with road numbers as few maps, for a French reason, never agree with the numbers on the road signs.
The best word of caution is to try and check the satnav route on a map as it is an absolute pain for cutting corners off tho save a few yards and often trying to take you up less than suitable short cuts for no good reason
The one thing to encourage you is that the roads are sooo much quieter than we are used to back in England and parking is plentiful and free almost everywhere

 

[Mikey RV]

We have been in France now for five days, not the first time driving in France but the first time in our camper. We have a garman sat nav which is doing us proud. All the Aires books, plug in the coordinates and it's got us to the aire every time. Really surprised how empty the roads are and this time of year not been busy in the Aires. I am surprised how many Aires you have to pay for now looking in the books but most of them are near the coast. Have fun on your trip.

 

[FIDGET]

As said before, a good satnav , which allows gps co-ord's. Michelin map,
an aires directory
i.e. All the aires, or on line Broken Link Removed, orhttp://www.searchforsites.co.uk
or if looking for reasonable campsites http://www.camping-municipal.org
I take a Mifi for wifi access for my tablet.

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[sdc77]

A three mobile account might be useful .. the roaming feature is very popular

 

[Dave and Ginny]

As many others have said, sat nav in conjunction with a good map such as the Michelin atlas is quite adequate. Plan your daily travel on the map so you have a good idea where your heading and the type of route you wish to travel, toll or non toll etc. Use the sat nav but continue to have the map handy. A good co-pilot is useful as well and when she/he tells you to ignore sat nav and go where she says then best do it!

Avoids many arguments that way .

 

[FIDGET]

@daveandginny, A good co-pilot is useful as well and when she/he tells you to ignore sat nav and go where she says then best do it!
Avoids many arguments that way .

Not in our household, Wifey can't read a map to save her life, & if I give her a list of which towns/villages we will go thru in a set order, she ends up directing me back to one that she hasn't crossed off.
So now rely on satnav & if a problem personally resort to map. Being a mere man I can't multi task.

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[Dave and Ginny]

@daveandginny, A good co-pilot is useful as well and when she/he tells you to ignore sat nav and go where she says then best do it!
Avoids many arguments that way .

Not in our household, Wifey can't read a map to save her life, & if I give her a list of which towns/villages we will go thru in a set order, she ends up directing me back to one that she hasn't crossed off.
So now rely on satnav & if a problem personally resort to map. Being a mere man I can't multi task.

Don't let on, but I often pretend that I've missed the turning my co-pilot want's me to take! "oh darn it...we will have to follow sat nav now".

 

[Aminthule]

Thank you all for your help and advice to date. I have a modern Pioneer multifunctional unit that includes SatNav, and I will check I can enter coordinates. Am planning to get All The Aires, a decent rod atlas and some DK guides, so hopefully will manage a few Gallic miles on my first trip!

 

[Deleted member 29692]

I have a modern Pioneer multifunctional unit that includes SatNav, and I will check I can enter coordinates.

If it's the same as the one I have it does but only as digital degrees. The format in All the Aires is degrees/digital minutes so you need a method of converting them. I use this app Broken Link Removed

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[mitzimad]

post codes in france are huge if you enter a post code into the sat nav it will offer a list of rds and you have to scroll down to the one you need the list can be a hundred or more long

 

[EthnGeoff]

Think you'll find that driving in France is generally a pleasure. Remember to set your satnav to avoid tolls, alternative routes are usually very good and tolls can prove expensive.

 

[TheBig1]

i prefer to use my truck satnav these days rather than the tomtom or built in navigation. never let me down yet with unsuitable shortcuts, low bridges or weight limits and only cost £40

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[Deleted member 29692]

Not a navigation aid as such but one that simplifies the journey is a Liber-t tag for toll roads. You don't have to mess around with taking tickets or credits cards. Just drive up to the barrier and it registers the charge to your Sanef account automatically. You pay by direct debit later.

I don't agree at all with the people that say never ever use toll roads. That may be OK if you have unlimited time and no destination in mind but if you are going to a particular place and you have a limited amount of time then why the hell would you waste it meandering through random French countryside? The same applies to taking a 2 hour, 100km detour to avoid paying a €5 toll. I really don't get it.

 

[sdc77]

Not a navigation aid as such but one that simplifies the journey is a Liber-t tag for toll roads. You don't have to mess around with taking tickets or credits cards. Just drive up to the barrier and it registers the charge to your Sanef account automatically. You pay by direct debit later.

I don't agree at all with the people that say never ever use toll roads. That may be OK if you have unlimited time and no destination in mind but if you are going to a particular place and you have a limited amount of time then why the hell would you waste it meandering through random French countryside? The same applies to taking a 2 hour, 100km detour to avoid paying a €5 toll. I really don't get it.

Yep.. spot on we are always happy use toll roads to cover distance. Our tag is a great addition.

 

[Shrimp]

Co-Pilot/Sat-Nav, good map and you'll still get lost!
Does it matter?

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[Reallyretired]

For many years , when I first started going to France, as it was all new to me and satnav hadn't been invented. I just used a compass, and tried to head South as much of the time as I could. I found all sorts of interesting places, couldn't find them again though. Lesson is, if you find somewhere great, then at least make a note of the name.