Map of France 2021: Folded road map (Collins Road Atlas)

Product Information

As it’s shiny plastic you can use a marker pen (not a permanent marker) to show the route for the navigator to follow and just rub it out later. The speed cameras are everywhere, and while there are signs warning that they are in use, often the actual speed limit is not posted for a few km afterwards.

Nothing can beat a paper map for spreading it across the hotel bed to examine all of the possibilities for the next day. I was hoping to avoid going into central Paris - I would REALLY like not to have to go inside the peripherique, but I will if I must. The maps carry all the usual information found on topographic maps at this scale: peaks, glaciers, passes, names of mountain ranges and other geographical features, railways with stations, funiculars, ski and chair lifts, administrative boundaries, etc.Symbols indicate various places of interest, with additional star rating for best sights, based on the publishers’ Green Guides for French regions. Couple of years ago I picked up a very good atlas of Spain/Portugal from a Spanish Lidl, far better than the Michelin map.

If several routes are available, they will be displayed at the top of the details of the current route. For France I really like the AA Big Easy Read atlas - at 1:190k I think its the largest scale one around. Like Jean and Kerouac, I use paper maps for planning at home and take them with me, and I also have to see the "big picture". We have to manage with the Michelin version which just has toll booths marked as dots, but you still don't know between which dots the charges apply ? The path can be zoomed in at any time of the course using the button to the left of the dynamical road map.The rental car had GPS, so I didn't use a map the whole trip, except for walking within a city center.