Driving in France and Belgium - thanks
Jul 26th, 2004, 10:49 AM
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Driving in France and Belgium - thanks
I read many messages on this board before a recent trip to France and Belgium, and I'd like to thank all who had reported good experiences with renting a car through AutoEurope. We had no problems with them (besides finding the Hertz rental offices in Brussels and Paris) - of course it didn't hurt that we were given a much nicer car than we had reserved!
On the other hand, I found the directions I had printed out ahead of time from Via Michelin almost uniformly useless. Thankfully we had good maps for everywhere we were heading and were fine just by using those. Get Michelin maps and good city maps for places you'll be staying, but forget about point-to-point directions from ViaMichelin.
Slightly off-topic, stayed at Les Berceaux in Epernay and we were very happy there and with both restaurants in the hotel.
On the other hand, I found the directions I had printed out ahead of time from Via Michelin almost uniformly useless. Thankfully we had good maps for everywhere we were heading and were fine just by using those. Get Michelin maps and good city maps for places you'll be staying, but forget about point-to-point directions from ViaMichelin.
Slightly off-topic, stayed at Les Berceaux in Epernay and we were very happy there and with both restaurants in the hotel.
Jul 28th, 2004, 08:43 AM
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Were the point to point directions just out of date? Not the right roads? Or is it because they list roads by highway # and when you look at the road signs the sign lists by town? We used computer printout directions (not michelin) to navigate Ireland and they worked beautifully. I find the via.michelin site confusing. Anyone have a better suggestion?
Jul 28th, 2004, 09:10 AM
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Jul 30th, 2004, 06:09 AM
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The reasons why ViaMichelin directions were useless were numerous and varied. Two postives: they were fairly accurate about timing which we might not have known otherwise, and they made it slightly easier to see which major roads to take from Brussels to Epernay and from Epernay to Paris, but that saved about 3 seconds of looking at the map.
But specifics were generally off-base (taking odd routes in and out of cities) or, often, for roads that didn't exist or not where they claimed they did; they also gave specifics when unecessary and confusing but no specifics when necessary. As long as you have a map that lists all the towns (since in much of Europe road signs point to towns rather than by route number) - and a navigator because driving anywhere unfamiliar is difficult on your own! - better off looking at one of the on-line services for some basic guidelines and then just following the map as you drive.
Again, slightly off-topic, but we spent time driving around the Champagne region around Epernay. Definitely worthwhile to get the "map" from the tourist office (not very detailed), but more worthwhile to relax and enjoy yourself. Often, we were unsure where we were headed, as signs at turns listed tiny villages, none of which were on our map, but it was never difficult to find our way around and much of the joy of that sort of driving is the stumbling across different vistas and the like.
But specifics were generally off-base (taking odd routes in and out of cities) or, often, for roads that didn't exist or not where they claimed they did; they also gave specifics when unecessary and confusing but no specifics when necessary. As long as you have a map that lists all the towns (since in much of Europe road signs point to towns rather than by route number) - and a navigator because driving anywhere unfamiliar is difficult on your own! - better off looking at one of the on-line services for some basic guidelines and then just following the map as you drive.
Again, slightly off-topic, but we spent time driving around the Champagne region around Epernay. Definitely worthwhile to get the "map" from the tourist office (not very detailed), but more worthwhile to relax and enjoy yourself. Often, we were unsure where we were headed, as signs at turns listed tiny villages, none of which were on our map, but it was never difficult to find our way around and much of the joy of that sort of driving is the stumbling across different vistas and the like.
Jul 30th, 2004, 06:39 AM
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One thing I learned recently is the fact that a print out from mappy.fr that I made in France shows where the RADAR CAMERAS are in kilometers and they are exactly spot on.
I never had any problem following mappy print outs. On rare occasion I do run into a blocked dead end street but that happens even with the satelite navigation system.
I never had any problem following mappy print outs. On rare occasion I do run into a blocked dead end street but that happens even with the satelite navigation system.
