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Best Road Atlas for driving in France?

For all of you who have driven in France, which road atlas should I buy? Which one has the best detailed maps and is easiest to use?

Posted by
10344 posts

For hard copy road atlases, Michelin. They have a big book covering all of France but if you only need certain regions, they have many regional maps. Go here to see the selection http://www.michelintravel.com/Of course, the map in your GPS will have the most detail and be your best friend.And you can print out your own customized maps by going here http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/gbr/tpl/hme/MaHomePage.htmOr at Google Maps http://www.google.com/maphp?hl=en&tab=wl&q=. Or do the free download of the GoogleEarth.com software. Or Maps.Live.com http://maps.live.com/#JndscD0x

Posted by
12172 posts

Michelin makes the best road atlases but a GPS will save you a lot of time and fret.

Posted by
711 posts

Hi Janet.. My husband and I have driven all over France for the past 15 years and you will love it. The roads are great..both big and small.We started out using maps we purchased here in the states, but none of them are as good as the regional maps you can get there.They are much more detailed and have all the little out -of-the way places you will want to go.For instance, we always stay in Burgundy a while and the couple who rented us a gite gave us a regional map and we noticed that the Morvan National Forest was on there in detail with all the l ittle villages,etc.We went into Avallon and got the same regional map and it was great. Now , however, we use our own GPS. We have a Garmin 350 and purchased the France maps . You can take the scenic route or the bigger highways. We like it because we are photographers and we can put down a marker of some lovely scene and return there again and again. Also , if you find some lovely out-of-the way little restaurant, you can mark it and return if it is closed. We like to just get lost in the French countryside and not listen to the GPS and then put on our hotel marker and return there or to any other marker. Have fun. Let me know if you have any other questions. We were in France from September to right before the election and we miss it. The Fall is so lovely with all the vineyards in color.Have fun,

Posted by
162 posts

Thank you both soooo much for your wonderful responses! I am in the beginnings of planning a trip to France for September and really felt like I needed a good map for looking at and dreaming. We just bought a GPS - Garmin 275 that is preloaded with Europe maps and think that will be a big help. I still like having an atlas tho!

I will appreciate your feed back on my proposed itinerary when I get it put together.

Posted by
34 posts

Janet, we drove all over France in September, from Normandy to Nice, and used our Garmin exclusively. You will love it. We took along a Michelin atlas but only referred to it to make sure we were headed in the right direction or to see exactly where we were on a long road trip. France is easy to drive in for the most part. I found driving on the Rivera to be stressful because of all the motorcycles weaving in and out of traffic and the fast pace, and of course we didn't even have a car in Paris. France has good well marked roads and polite drivers.