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Hi all, we have been driving to france spain and italy for 7 years now and have never used a sat nav. Just buy a copy of the michelin europe atlas and that will show you where you want to go. if you go by auto routes it is quite easy . If you do take a wrong turn it is quite easy to turn around and getting a little lost is just part of the fun of driving abroad.

Happy driving gary

To GraemeStuart99

I like your football badge the best team in england.

 I use the Blue Media Destinator  by Evesham technology  and the French map I put on another card from the disc.......they work fine  and I only bother with it when looking for places in town I have an address for ....you dont really need it cross country.....but they do not warn of the French speed cameras locations as they do the Uk ones ........its perhaps just as well as if the French Police find out you have such a device they will take it from you and probably stamp on it at the road side .....Nantes ring road is no problem....very well signed up....you cant miss the turn offs you get such a good approach warning ....

"its perhaps just as well as if the French Police find out you have such a device they will take it from you and probably stamp on it at the road side"

It's only RADAR detectors that are illegal in France (and several other European countries) Satnav with camera warnings as POIs are legal (after all, the new Michelin maps and viamichelin website have camera locations on them).

As for those who poo-poo satnav, yes Michelin maps and ICN maps are excellent and I don't think anyone would suggest that you throw them away but there is no doubt that satnav is extremely useful and a brilliant accessory. It is especially useful when your co-driver falls asleep just as you arrive at a series of complex junctions or you are trying to find a site down some obscure minor roads - far safer than trying to read a map while driving or trying to find a suitable stopping place to have another look at the map.

"If you do take a wrong turn it is quite easy to turn around and getting a little lost is just part of the fun of driving abroad." - this is not always the case! - it can be just the opposite and even dangerous. As for "we have been driving to france spain and italy for 7 years now and have never used a sat nav." well, I've driven all over Europe for nearly 40 years (first trip to Spain in 1966) and last year I used satnav and found it very useful (yes, useful, not essential) at times - not on long autoroute sections, but in and around towns and getting to campsites. I also used my satnav (its a handheld PDA type) on my bike and when walking round cities. (also used ICN and street maps)

Satnav won't take you down farm tracks unless you are the type who looks at a map and selects farmtracks to go down - roads are numbered and shown according to their standard - and if you don't choose "shortest" route it is very unlikely that the satnav will even suggest tracks.

However, satnav is just like any other tool, it should be used appropriately - if you are going on the M1 from Leeds to London, it's hardly necessary, but to find a particular address in Battersea it would be very useful for the last ten/twenty miles.

And satnav is not the be all and end all - my car and van have loads of maps stuffed in various cubby holes - Michelin and those excellent (but as said above not as good as OS maps) ICN maps which have so much more detail than satnav maps.

Now, I don't have experience of different systems but my Navman PiN 300, with SmartST navigation program seems to work fine, many people swear by TomTom but I've never used it. a great site to find out more about satnav is

http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/

also http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=reviews&id=428

http://www.totalpda.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=273

http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/default.asp?group=2

Sorry for long post - hope not too boring or confrontational - it's not meant to be

Phil

A brilliant post, thanks

.

This might also be worth a look??

http://www.shop.viamichelin.com/shopexd.asp?catalogid=704

Hubby bought a Tom Tom 500 last year to guide us round France.  We booked to stay at a couple of sites and wanted to do lots of site seeing too.  We had no idea where we were going, didnt take a map.  We just followed the instructions the nice lady gave us on the tom tom. 

It was funny watching the tom tom while we on the ferry (kept telling us to 'turn around where possible')

..although in hindsight its probably sensible to take a map as it lost the signal for two minutes one dark night in a very small lane and we just looked at each in panic.  Fortunately it came back on again and we were on our way..Phew!

I have Tom Tom 5 on PDA and also have the GB & France Plus maps.

The GB Plus map has major european roads and is capable of getting us to the town we want but the France map has much more detail.

French camera POI's are available at www.gpspassion.com but that area of the site is in french only and can be very confusing. They also have loads of French POIs to download.

www.pocketgpsworld.co.uk also have french and european POIs.

Looking forward to testing ours in France first time this summer, Wife's navigation skills leave something to be desired and we plan travelling down overnight so she will also be asleep so I don't want to be reading a map on dark unfamilar french roads.

as hutsOn said but knock £100 off if you shop on ebay.

same system here. PDA £100 - ebay GPS Reciever (not BT as limited battery life) £30 - ebay 1gb SD card £17.99 www.7dayshop.com or www.mymemory.co.uk

It is really a good system and it also takes a compact flash card which are only £15 for 1GB from the above. Ideal for me as my new camera takes CF and I can view the photos on the PDA on a bigger screen when I am out & about.

You can also get Compact Flash GPS recievers and CF Wifi adaptors so you can have email & internet access from your PDA while out & about.

I would say if you go for PDA go for one with 64Mb of built in memory at least.

Hookey Tom tom 5 software is available on ebay but the real thing is about £200 so you probably won't save anything if you buy retail.