Driving in rural France with Google maps

I don't see the problem with roundabouts; all directions are clearly indicated, no need for GPS.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/uFxGHNwER7ZHAV3w6

JoLui: You are French, so of course you have no problem driving in France. If you are a tourist, it's a very different experience.

I think we went thru that linked intersection a time or 12.

I had no problem using Google Maps in rural France, but I always turn off the voice directions. I find them confusing even when they're in my native language. Honestly, I find it more difficult to follow in cities. Waze works a little better in cities IME.

I don't use Google maps. Learned that a long time ago. Use Waze. Set it up to avoid the toll roads. Don't always take the fastest route. Navigate by city/town directions, not road names.

When I am in a car, I use Apple Maps. I use Google mostly for walking around cities. But like someone else posted, I never use voice navigation in either French or English. I just look at the map on screen and have not had a problem doing this with either.

The key to getting around in France by car is realizing north/south/east/west (nord/sud/est/ouest) aren't indicated except on periphériques around larger cities.

They use town names instead. So, if you're in Isgny-sur-Mer, you have to know that, if you want to go west, follow the signs to Carentan. North? Head toward Grandcamp-Maisy, and if you want to go east head toward Bayeux.

I use Google Maps and am not phased by any of the irritations listed. Roundabouts make negotiating traffic easy. Besides walking in a city Google Maps does pretty good hiking out in the countryside where we are in 14.

It’s interesting to hear a wide variety of perspectives on maps and traffic circles. ( as roundabouts are mostly known by in the states)
I particularly hate some treacherous traffic circles in New Jersey.

In rural areas, always pay close attention to the road signs indicating directions. These signs offer the most reliable guidance. Relying on a GPS or any navigation app that suggests an alternative route can lead you down a road that will take you to the middle of nowhere or to an area where traffic is prohibited.

Even after driving millions of kilometers across France, I still trust the road signs over my GPS when they indicate a different path.

In my rural area, it's common to see drivers getting stuck on bizarre roads because their GPS directed them down what it thought was the quickest or shortest option.

At various intersections near towns and villages, you might notice signs that read "Toutes Directions (All Directions) , this is the direction you must follow; otherwise, you will likely end up in the narrow streets of the town or village and find yourself in a maze of one-way streets.

I used Google Maps in France a couple of weeks ago and I don’t recognize the problem of the OP. Perhaps it’s because I use Google Maps in the Dutch language, but it tells me both the name of the road and the D-Number. So it will tell me for instance “Sla rechtsaf naar Rue Xxx / de DXxx” which translates as “Turn right onto Rue Xxx / the Dxxx”. In addition to that I see on my screen which street or road I have to turn in to. And in addition there are road signs which will point you in the right direction.

I can't speak for all of rural France but I will agree that a GPS has little value in the Dordogne. It took us a few days to figure what what JoLui has said many times on this Forum, that you need to trust the signage. I can't count how many times GPS tried to have us take a one-way road the wrong way.

After we took the wrong exit from a roundabout, we eventually decided roundabouts could be our friends. You just keep going round and round ‘til you decide which way out is your way. 540, 810, 990 … whatever.

LATE ENTRY. A good, regional, Michelin paper map and designating a passenger as navigator was also a great help. And a great souvenir to highlight.

I disagree on the authority of my experience driving 2700+ kilometers throughout France this past October without using any autoroutes (only smaller national and departmental roads). It was my first time in France. We used Google maps the entire time and found it to be perfect to get us everywhere, even through and within the smallest of communes.

I will say, Google's "American" accent was pretty humorous trying to pronounce place names (especially Germanic-French in the Alsace region)!

Yes, the Google maps accent is tres droll. Nothing is pronounced correctly.

I believe Wolter (as in the vlog Wolter's World) is pretty consistent that he uses GPS and not Google.

As noted, road signage in France and the UK is pretty comprehensive and there's no reason to avoid it. They likely know exactly where you want to go.

Recalculating!!!

John said "Recalculating" - you left out the "klunk-klunk" noise.

Sometimes the GPS is a little delayed and can be useless on small roundabouts where it tells us to exit too late. You need to know the route name or number. You do need to know the major cities on your route or in your direction in order to choose the correct route or know the route number. For example, seeing a sign for Dijon as you leave Paris is no help if your destination is a village near Sens. You need a paper map, too, for both small and large routes.

I seem to be alone in finding Google Maps navigation to work equally well in France (and Spain, and Germany, and Italy, and Switzerland) as in the US. I'm wondering why the difference. It's not perfect anywhere, but that goes for Indiana as well as Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

Directional signage is pretty good in France but so is Google Maps, in my experience. For me, it's Waze that has a tendency to suggest dodgy routes when there is traffic on main routes.

But yeah, road names and numbers are useless for the most part. Road names are unreadable and numbers aren't consistent across administrative boundaries, for the most part.

Google Maps worked fine for me in Provence, which isn't the easiest place to get around. I heard the directions in English. A bonus is enjoying the mispronunciations of French place names. There's always a risk with GPS of getting headed down a rabbit hole, so a map and/or some basic geographic awareness always helps.

At various intersections near towns and villages, you might notice signs that read "Toutes Directions (All Directions) , this is the direction you must follow; otherwise, you will likely end up in the narrow streets of the town or village and find yourself in a maze of one-way streets.

It's an interesting comment, but it's not true. In my experience (over a decade living in Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne, and Normandie, having extensively traveled in other parts of the country by car and having gone through obtaining a French permis de conduire through testing rather than via reciprocity) the "toutes directions" sign may or may not be of value. And not following it may not sentence a driver to a maze of one-way streets or other such situations. In my experience, the "toutes directions" signs reveal where the town's traffic engineers want the traffic to go (for whatever reason) not where it's best that it goes.

It could be a safe bet to follow it, but it might not be the best choice depending on your situation.

It could be a safe bet to follow it, but it might not be the best
choice depending on your situation.

After driving extensively as a local across France for both work and leisure almost 40 years and covering millions of kilometers, while some may wish to argue that exceptions exist, it's important to recognize that when "Toutes Directions" signs are present, they typically indicate the most effective route for those unfamiliar with the area.

That being said, I would love to hear specific examples of instances where a Toutes Directions sign "might not be the best choice" for someone unfamiliar with the local roads.

We just returned from our trip, and spent 4 days driving in Provence using Google Maps. Partner was most familiar with, therefore felt most comfortable using Google Maps, It was fine with 2 of us. The driver listened to directions to get a feel for which round-about exit, but the "co-pilot" (me) was also watching the map. Road signs were less helpful. Sometimes Google Maps just got it wrong - showing the correct exit on the map, but "counting" incorrectly (i.e. 'take the 4th exit', when in reality that would have made a full U-turn). I think it would have been much harder without someone also watching the maps.

Speed zones were another source of frustration. Google Maps indicates the current speed limit. Our rental car also indicated the speed limit, with an audible alert if exceeded. Google and Rental car did not always agree. Road signs SOMETIMES indicated the same required speed; sometimes differed. We tried to pick the slowest of the (3) to be safe. But occasionally the slowest of the (3) seemed incorrect, and obviously made following drivers impatient. Hopefully no tickets find their way to us in the near future.

...but "counting" incorrectly (i.e., 'take the 4th exit', when in
reality that would have made a full U-turn).

Navigation systems are sometimes unreliable in roundabouts, they add or omit exits. It's best to look at the road signs or a road map.

Google and rental car didn't always agree. Road signs sometimes
indicated the same required speed; sometimes they differed.

The road sign is always the correct one. In the event of a police or gendarmerie speed control, they don't care at all what Google, your GPS, or your car's integrated system has displayed.

I am a french taxi and I use Waze which i think is the best...

I am wondering about the topography of France as I am planning to rent a car and drive south of the Bordeaux region to a wedding in August, and also drive to sightsee in the Tours and Amboise regions. Are the roads 1- or 2- lane? How hilly, twisty, difficult will it be to drive? Are the locals impatient? I live in the flat midwest of the U.S. Thanks.

A.Kathleen,
You need to start your own thread because very few others will see your question at the bottom of someone else's thread. And if you do get responses, the OP will be getting notifications about your question.

Driving south of the Bordeaux region

In short:

It all depends on exactly where you're going south of Bordeaux. Heading south from Bordeaux, you cross the Landes forest, one of the most monotonous and boring regions of France. It's completely flat, and you drive on endless straight roads through the forest.

Further south are the Pyrenees mountains and the Basque Country, a very mountainous and beautiful area.

Are the locals impatient?

In August, particularly on weekends, the roads and highways in the region get quite congested. This area serves as a key route to Spain and the Atlantic coast, attracting just as many foreign tourist drivers as locals: Dutch, Spanish, German, English, Belgian, etc.

As you might expect, English drivers tend to be more patient than their Spanish counterparts.

Thank you Elizabeth and JoLui. Yes a new thread would have been be a better choice. Also thanks for the input. The driving portion of the trip has me a little nervous. I may look at trains and excursions as an alternative.

JoLui writes:

That being said, I would love to hear specific examples of instances
where a Toutes Directions sign "might not be the best choice" for
someone unfamiliar with the local roads.

What I was thinking of when I wrote that statement was in Coutances, Manche. It’s a small partly medieval city near the west coast of the Cotentin Peninsula. While heading north out of town, there are several “TOUTES DIRECTIONS” signs that lead you away from town, first into a winding mixed-use residential/commercial area and then, eventually, on a road east to Saint-Lô. However, most people unfamiliar with the area of Coutances driving north out of town would be looking for two things during their visit: the Leclerc store, which is the last hypermarché before the coast and is absolutely mobbed by visiting Germans, Dutch, British, and Belgians in the summer, and the roads to the coast, where most tourists in the area are headed. The toutes directions signs don’t direct you that way. They direct you away from there.

An example intersection, should you care to check Google streetview, would be heading north on rue du Palais de Justice, one of the ways north out of the Centre Ville, where a toutes directions sign indicates one should turn right onto rue des Docteurs Dudouyt. That would be a mistake for most tourists (and, frankly, most residents). A better move would be to continue straight on rue du Palais de Justice to rue Gambetta, take a left and go to rue Maréchal Joffre, take a right to Boulevard Alsace Lorraine, where you would take another right to head north. Then, veer left at the “Y” onto Avenue Division Leclerc. That would take you past Intermarché, Lidl, Leclerc, and would lead you to D971, the main road west toward the coast. It sounds complicated, but because of one-way roads, as long as he or she knows generally which direction north is, a tourist would be fine and would be better served by ignoring the toutes directions sign.