tuscanlifeedit

Hi

We are going to France in a little more than a month. I'm map shopping and have a small dilemma.

We train straight from CDG to Reims, but after a day we will get a car then drive to Vaux le Vicomte and Fontainebleau. From there we leave the car at Orly and fly to Nice.

In Nice we have a car for five days and nights before flying back to Paris.

I could get the Champagne-Ardennes Michelin map but it wouldn't cover our drive toward the chateaux and Orly.

I could get the France Nord map and the Cote d'Azur map.

Or I could get the spiral bound Michelin map for all of France. That would be the best buy and we do use our spiral bound Italy Michelin map all the time.

It is doubtful that we will rent or buy a sat nav device. I much prefer paper maps for getting the lay of the land.

So any advice on which maps to buy would be helpful.

Merci.

kerouac

If you can be a little bit more patient and wait until you arrive, you will find about 80 different kinds of maps in a FNAC store. You will find all of the necessary Michelin or IGN maps there, as well as every single competitor. If you are not near a FNAC even though they are in every major city and any big shopping mall, you will find what you need in a suburban hypermarket such as Auchan, Carrefour, E. Leclerc, Géant, Cora, etc.

In the meantime, just download an itinerary or two from www.viamichelin.com

Christina

I prefer paper maps too and have the spiral one, but don't really want to lug that around on vacation I just Xerox the few pages I need. The route from CDG to Reims shouldn't be that difficult, I would think you could just get an itinerary online. I also use www.mappy.fr (as well as viamichelin).

Can't help you as to the others, the more detailed ones don't cover as big an area, of course (the regional Michelin ones). It's just a call as to which covers the area you want. I would never lug around an entire book becuase I needed two maps, if you think you only need two, sounds good to me, if you don't want to wait until you get there. Sounds like you wn't have much time to map shop, though. They do sell maps in the airport, of course, but you never know if they'd be out of the one you wanted.

FrenchMystiqueTours

If you want to be prepared in advance, any of the Michelin maps (or Atlas) can be bought on-line from Michelin.com. The atlas is the most comprehensive solution but you can't see a large area on one page and have to flip pages a lot. If you get the Atlas get the scale 1:150,000 (1cm = 1.5km).

In your case, if you want individual maps for Reims/Fontainebleau/Vaux/Orly get map #306 Aisne, Ardennes, Marne (scale 1:150,000) and map #514 Île-de-France (scale 1:200,000).

I don't know what areas you're planning on exploring near to Nice but certainly get maps 341 and 340 and you might also want map 334 (if you're going inland northwest of Nice) and map 332 (if you're going near Avignon). These are all scale 1:150,000 maps (departmental maps).

You can buy the Michelin maps from their website and here is a link to the page that shows you the 1:200,000 scale maps of France (Regional maps): http://tinyurl.com/4bt96ev

And here is a link to the page that shows you the 1:150,000 scale maps of France (Departmental maps):
http://tinyurl.com/6mt4n64

nytraveler

Buy individual paper maps. Easier to deal with than a book and can be reused for different trips.

We have a pack and home and when one finally shreds replace it for the next trip.

All Michelin.

Michael

Almost any <i>librarie</i> will carry maps. No need to order them in the States unless you intend to use them to plan your trip ahead of time.

Why fly back to Paris unless it happens to be the connecting airport for flying overseas on the same day? Why not an open jaw leaving from Nice?

tuscanlifeedit

Michael: well, we're all happy to be in Paris for a few days before heading back to the US, but our award tickets were nabbed many months ago, and with minimum miles no itinerary set, we took Paris because we could get it.

All the map advice has been great. I may wait to get to France before buying the maps.

We aren't driving to Reims from CDG, we are taking the train direct from CDG.

My spiral bound Michelin Italy has made several trips with me. It doesn't take up much room and is very handy; that's why I thought of getting one for France.

grandmere

Buying the maps at a FNAC is much less expensive than buying them here from Amazon, etc.
Have a wonderful trip, Deb!

Are you on the non-stop Delta PIT-CDG?

dwdvagamundo

If you like the spiral-bound Michelin for Italy, I'd get another for France--there is a lot to be said for being familiar with the map format.

tuscanlifeedit

grandmere: Sue, how I wish I was on that nonstop. We tend to spend our miles as soon as we can get a ticket, so we are driving to PHL to get a flight to CDG.

I honestly don't mind, because there really wouldn't be any other way that we could go as often as we do. It's worth the drive to me; the drive home, however, will be massively horrible.

dwdvagamundo (I want to hear about that screenname): my thoughts exactly, and I'm not sure how it would weigh that much more that 4 separate Michelin maps with their covers. If I didn't like for Italy, I wouldn't use it repeatedly.

grandmere

You'll be on a nicer aircraft on that PHL-CDG flight, though. The Delta from PIT has only 1 aisle.

tuscanlifeedit

Sue, I do like the USAirways Airbuses from PHL and Charlotte. I was just checking award charts for next year and they are awful: I wonder what the new combined airline will fly.

How was your seat on the Delta flight???

dwdvagamundo

tuscanlife--

My screen name is my initials plus Spanish for something like "world vagabond." (a play on "vagabundo") It's my home e-mail address.

dwdvagamundo

BTW--Like to hear the basis for yours--bet there's a story there.

tuscanlifeedit

dwdv: a boring and old story. It was my work email address when I registered.

BigShoulders

I would go with the spiral bound map. I love mine, and like knowing iam not limited to a regional map if I decide to go further afield. I also like having the map along with a navigation system. The navigation system really comes in handy in the larger cities.