City maps and driving in Paris

Susan, I think Streetwise maps would be fine.

If you already know where you are staying you might try Viamichelin.com. There you can get driving directions from your hotel to your destination. You can also generate a map in as much detail as you want and print it out to take with you.

Thanks, Doug. I have already printed out directions from Michelin for all my trips; I heard so much about driving in Paris that I become a bit hesitant.

Susan

Even though I can easily maneuver through the highways and surface streets of Dallas / Houston, I was still unprepared for a few things regarding Paris traffic. 1) Many of the Parisians drove in an aggressive manner; 2) At certain times of the day, even on the Peripherique, there was an incredible amount of traffic on the roads; 3) The signs, of course, were written in French; and, 4) motorcycles seemed to be swarming everywhere.

No one ever appeared to be operating in an un-safe manner, though, and with your GPS unit, you should be fine. If you want extra preparation, you could use one the travel websites to print out the signage (in French) for all of the major turning points; and you could use Google Earth to “practice” your drives – it displays the buildings and roads in 3-D, almost like a video game.

Here is a list of maps that have gotten very favorable comments from users. I don't know how many of them can be bought in the US.

Paris Mapguide – includes bus & metro maps

Streetwise Paris (laminated)

Michelin Paris Pocket Atlas Map #16 (spiral bound – detailed)

Paris Pratique par Arrondissement (detailed)

Good luck, Susan. Even with the encouragement above, I would still use trains to get to Versailles and Giverny. I consider the times I've driven out of Paris to be among the most challenging driving I've done and certainly wouldn't want to be driving out and in for day trips.

Susan, I agree with Doug that driving in Paris is a nightmare, but it seems you have no choice because I also agree it will be nice to have your car in Giverny. I found the streetwise map was not good enough for navigating the streets in Paris as I found it not to be 100% correct. One thing I found surprising and confusing while driving in Paris is that the one way streets are not always one way for the entire length of the street. Some streets become one way the other direction at some point, but a good map should point this out.

I think you are probably wise to print out the viamichelin directions and use them to help guide you into and out of Paris.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. I will look for the maps suggested and thanks for the idea of printing out the signs in French. The ones I have seen in guidebooks are very similar to the ones in Germany and so I think I can become familiar with the ones I don't know. German streets also have short passages that are one-way and German drivers are quite aggressive as well, but they think we are! :-)

Susan