Good road map for Spain to France?
 

My husband and I will be flying into Barcelona in early September. The plan is to drive from there to the south of France, through the Pyrenees. Can anyone recommend a good road map for the area? I'm not sure if there is one map that will encompass northeast Spain and the south of France. We plan on concentrating on Provence, countryside and small towns rather than Nice and the Cote d'Azur.

Another question: is driving through the Pyrenees scary, with hairpin turns on narrow roads with no guardrails? If so, we may be better off taking the train from Barcelona and renting a car in France since I'm always convinced we are going to die when on roads like that, and I drive DH nuts with my foot on an imaginary brake and constant chant of "slow down, slow down," even when he is going 20 mph. Or, I could get a prescription for Valium! We will have to go back to Barcelona for our flight home as well.

Another question: is driving through the Pyrenees scary, with hairpin turns on narrow roads with no guardrails? >

depends where you drive thru but the route via La Tour de Carol is fairly low-level and main roads that would not scare or unnerve the average person. This route leads to the Toulouse/Carcassonne area.

The coastal roads too are not cliff hangers and are really mild and that is a classic drive from Barcelona - the Calanques (sp?) towns on the gorgeous coast.

Coullioure just over the border in France is one of several seaside gems there.

We always use the Michelin Motoring Atlas book for Spain, and they must have one for France. Every single little village is in there. Have fun on your trip !

Yup I have the French Michelin Atlas and highly recommend it - can buy lots of places once there or individual Michelin maps - at gas stations, newsstands, etc.

So far, I've ordered this one since it has both countries and is a recent edition, but was thinking I should have more than one.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Along the edges of the Pyrénées, the roads to France are not mountainous. If you want to drive through the center of the Pyrénées, the roads are much more exciting. Some of them have tunnels through the scariest areas.

The Michelin maps are the best.

Michelin maps are 1:200000 - much more detailed than that atlas (which is a good basic map all that the average traveler needs) because I enjoy most details possible- I think the Michelin Atlas of France is 1:20000000 but not sure -the yellow Micehlin maps are -if you will be in one area a lot buy them en route.

But I think that Phillips Atlas is all you really need.

Thanks everyone. I'll look for the Michelin Motoring Atlas for both France and Spain.

kerouac, when you say the roads are much more exciting, I take it you mean I will be slinking down in my seat and pressing my foot on that imaginary brake and pleading with DH to SLOW DOWN! Am I right? I'll look on the atlas for those tunnels.

About 18 years ago, we were driving in Tasmania down from Cradle Mountain on a terrifying (to me) road and I was doing exactly as I described above. I think DH wanted to throw me out of the car! When we finally got to the bottom, we pulled into a parking lot to see a site called "The Nut" and I opened the door, stuck my head out and threw up! Last March/April, we were back in Tasmania and drove down that same road, but this time I took Valium before we set out. I was calm, and DH wasn't thinking of divorcing me.

Laurieco, so take over the driving; you don't get carsick when you are the one driving and in control. When we're driving in mountains, I do most of the driving. I find that roads seem 'scarier' when someone else is driving.

We use the detailed Michelin maps, the yellow ones, for France. They are small and easy to pack. I like to see the whole area in one view, rather than in an atlas.

Have a good trip!

I do manage to get carsick when driving.

We have always used the Michelin road atlas. A lot of people recommend the individual maps for each region. It depends on how long your tip is. Last year we were in France for ten weeks . We stayed in seven different regions and passed through several other regions. So for us one resource is the answer.
We spent two weeks in the Pyrenees last year and did not find the roads especially alarming. How long do you have for this trip?
I am assuming you are Australian as we are? If you click on my name you can see my trip reports. In 2012(our own country roads) we stayed in the Aude (week 2).In 2014 (on the road again) we stayed in Provence and l'Herault. Last year (country roads in Autumn) we stayed in the Pyrenees and in the region around Albi. All these regions can be considered in the south of France.
Bon voyage.

I am a map freak and agree that the Michelin ones are the best, but I also love the IGN maps. If it were me, the map freak, I'd have two maps (whether Michelin or IGN) for each country. And yes to taking over the driving. I am a big huge mess when DH (who is a very cautious driver) is at the wheel. When I'm driving, it's all fine.

I wouldn't use the Michelin atlas. For whatever reason, I always find myself needing to know something very specific that's on the crease between the pages, and it's not funny.

Before you take off go to a French pharmacy and buy some PC Sédatif. It's OTC. Take two before the drive and enjoy. This is how I survive driving in rural France.

www.viamichelin.com will help you in planning ahead.

For those of you not attached to paper, give some consideration to the electronic maps at maps.me. They are getting better all the time, and are all downloaded, and so produce no data/phone charges. I have not completely broken away from the Michelin atlas and a stand-alone GPS, but maps.me is getting me closer to it.

There are three Michelin Regional Maps of France you might want: #525 Midi-Pyrenees, #526 Languedoc-Roussillon and #527 Provence-Alps-French Riviera, if you plan on getting that far. There is also a Zoom Map of Provence, #113, that covers map covers the area and the cities of Montpellier, Montelimar, Avignon and Marseille.

On the Spanish side, you can consider Aragon Catalonia Regional Map #574. A Zoom Map for the Spanish side is #146, Pirineos Orientales/Pyrénées-Orientales.

I need to spread out a yellow Michelin map on the bed at the hotel to plot routes for the following day. No downloadable map will ever give me that.

Amen, Kerouac. We need to see the big picture !

Yep, big paper map spread out on whatever surface is available. Love the old-fashioned way to navigate.

Laurie what are your stop off points- along the way ? we have done Barcelona to northern Spain many many times, this year we are driving UK to Costa Brava!!!!

Pal - do you actually means Cadaques?

We bought the France Michelin paper atlas thinking our smartphones wouldnt operate as great as they did -- my husband is fond of the Here app, but I swear by Via Michelin and they worked beautifully. But we did plan our routes on paper and it's a lovely souvenir to look up even more places.

Wow, so much information! I'll have to sit down tomorrow and digest all of this

I doubt I will take over driving on the mountainous roads. I live in NYC and don't drive much anymore. DH drives all the time (he lives in Albany, we have a commuter marriage).

rhon, I'm not Australian, I'm American ( but wishing I was Australian, or anything else for the next 4 years!) We only have 10 days for this trip. I look forward to reading your trip reports.

As usual, the Fodor's community has given me much to think about. We of course want to maximize our time, but we always come back to places we like so although this is our first trip to the south of France, I'm sure it won't be our last so I don't feel the need to see everything.

Oh, and if for some reason you use a GPS, absolutely do not do what it tells you to do if it contradicts the road signs. Every time I have a GPS (which I never ask for, but which some rental cars I am give have anyway), it is always trying to get me to turn on to agricultural dirt tracks or through tiny village streets instead of going to the next intersection where the real road is.

I also use Michelin maps but use them mostly for a overview of where I am going. Find I use my Garmin more and more and have found it to be quite reliable. You might also find that you might have a hefty drop off fee if you are renting in Spain and dropping off in France. lastly if you only have 10 days why fly into Barcelona if you want to explore Provence?

kerouac, thanks for the warning. I planned on using my iPhone for GPS, we used it driving all over Australia, well Tasmania, the Northern Territory and Yarra Valley, and never got lost, but I will heed your advice. We found the GPS using Apple Maps to be quite good, but I imagine it varies from region to region and country to country.

mjs, we are flying into Barcelona because I was able to get non-stop flights JFK to BCN for $400.00 round trip. I also read that it is only a 5 or 6 hour drive from Barcelona to Aix-en-Provence.

$400 ?? Where did you get that deal ? Just wonderful !

Bedar, I booked directly through Delta. I had to call them because even though the web site was stating that price, every time I put in my credit card info, it said it was no longer available. I called Delta and they were able to do it, no fee, we were even able to reserve our seats. I booked it in January, the same day we flew to Iceland. It was in one of the travel emails I subscribe to, Travel Zoo I think, and it was too good a deal to pass up. We leave September 4, a nice time of year to go.

Wow, good for you. Congrats !

laurico, that was a wonderful deal, well done for persisting!

we drove over the Pyrenees from France to Spain many years ago, but rather than remembering hairline turns and precipitous corners, my memory is mostly that having got to the Spanish border [when such things existed] we had to drive all the way back into France again because DH had left his jacket on the back of the chair in the cafe where we'd stopped for a drink and, [yes that's right] his passport was in the pocket of his jacket. While we were there we'd joked that it was the sort of place where our arrival was probably the most exciting thing that happened all day, so our return must have been headline news. of course the jacket and passport were where we'd left them so we said "au revoir" again, got back in the car, and drove back to Spain.

Maps AND GPS would be the way to go for me, 30 years later. And I'd be doing the driving.

Laurieco, watch the speed limits in France like a hawk. We drive in France regularly, are very careful not to speed, and still get caught out. Last time it was a 45 euro ticket for driving 112 km where 110 was allowed...
If you're in a rental car, there will likely be a fee from the rental company added onto the ticket as well.

If you're not driving, then watching the signs is your job!

We drive BCN to the Costa Brava several times a year and are currently using the Tom Tom Western Europe app, its brilliant and has served us well for about 4 years... I think it's been replaced by Tom Tom Go...
We plan to use this same app to drive U.K. Through France to the Costa Brava in a few weeks time... it's off line once downloaded so no costly data charges..... I haven't used the new version though but we will probably have to later this year as I read it's unsupported after Sept 17
Anyway my point is no need for maps if you get a decent "Sat Nav" app.

annhig, sorry for laughing at your "sad" story but that is funny! Probably wasn't at the time, but sometimes those horrible experiences turn into the best travel stories. I know some of mine have.

Tulips, thanks for that advice. I will make sure we are not driving over the speed limit. One day, we will rent a car and drive the autobahn, just because we could go as fast as we want!

Smeagol, I have unlimited data overseas so that isn't a problem. I'll look into that app for my iPhone and see if I like it better than the Apple map.

A friend of mine recommended an ap called Copilot for my iPhone and I tried it last year and it does work quite well. I still prefer the Garmin. One nice feature is that it warns you when you are speeding. It's easy to miss that the speed limit has changed from 90 to 70 or 70 to 50 etc. in the US I can guess by the road roughly what the speed limits are but find myself unable to do that consistently in Europe.

annhig, sorry for laughing at your "sad" story but that is funny! Probably wasn't at the time, but sometimes those horrible experiences turn into the best travel stories. I know some of mine have.>>

my strongest memory of the time, laurico is the silence in which we drove back to the cafe and then back to Spain - i've rarely driven for so long without saying a word. However we recovered from the experience and as you say, it's one of the stories that we tell people about our travels, in fact we've probably bored most of friends with it several times.

mjs - I agree that GPS does have the advantage of letting you know what the speed limit is, though I've found that mine isn't always accurate. Having just done a speed awareness test in the UK I can say that we have only 3 national speed limits - 70 mph on motorways and dual carriageways [defined as a road with a central reservation] and 60 mph on all other roads except where there is a recognisable system of street lights, where it's 30 mph. That's it, unless you see a different speed limit sign or repeaters along the side of the road. Easy peasy when you know. Not much help with France or Spain though!