French Michelin maps and toll roads explained.

[Wapping]

Unashamedly lifted (and adapted) from Franco's excellent original post:


Michelin's French maps are excellent, with a host of useful detail for plotting touring routes.

If you're travelling across France, motorways can save a lot of time and some of them (especially round these parts) are very scenic. They are marked on the maps as two red lines with a yellow band in the centre for toll roads, and two red lines with a white central band for non-toll. However, there are sections of the toll roads (marked 'peage' on French signposts) which are free. See the pic below.

The A57 autoroute from Toulon towards us, is free initially, then just after Cuers (directly above the aeroplane icon), you'll see the motorway turn to yellow from white and there is a black line across it. That's the toll barrier. Some of them can be expensive too, but you can figure out the charges and other costs, including fuel, on the ViaMichelin site:

http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/int/tpl/hme/MaHomePage.htm

Also, on the same map you can see:

The classic D 'Country' roads, in yellow. These are, near enough, like the UK's B roads.

To the right hand side, the shaded green 'scenic' route across the Col de Babaou, with its suggested view point, probably with a suitable lay-by or pull off area.

To the left, you can see the unclassified (white) road, going west from Sollies Pont, again becoming scenic. As the white line is unbroken, it will be metalled but maybe bumpy or a broken surface, possibly narrow, but certainly OK for a motorbike or family saloon car.

In the lower portion of the map, you can see the D98. This has the distance calculators, between the 'pins'. From the D98's junction with the D12, west to its junction with the D559, is 11 km (nearly 7 miles).

The D98 road here is red, not yellow. This indicates it is more of a main road than the classic yellow D roads, so expect more traffic, particularly as it appears to be the only road along the coast. The French have, just recently, been reclassifying some of their main N roads (the equivalent of the the UK's A roads) as D roads. The colour and location of the road may well give you the best clues.



Bon route...

 

[(RIP) Shenzi]

There you go! Mapsource on the computer, a Michelin map on your knee and you can make some really great routes!

 

[franco]

De rien

Actually, it's Michelin who deserve the thanks. Must make a point of going along that road in the next couple of weeks, and sending some photies. Good post Wapping. If anyone is ever down that way, well worth a stop in Bormes les Mimosas which is lovely. As you're heading north out of Bormes towards the Col, there's a little seating area on the right hand side. Directly opposite is a great baker. Their Coffee eclairs, and mille-feuilles just have to be tasted to be believed...

 

[Aidan1150]

Good post Wapping. I have stickied it in the travel section.

 

[Wapping]

There you go! Mapsource on the computer, a Michelin map on your knee and you can make some really great routes!

In one, Shenzi Here's a bit more:

A very handy map to have is the Michelin 726, Route Planning map.

This is a large 1/1000000 scale (1cm:10km) map of the whole of France, with all the finer detail (small roads, towns and villages) stripped out. This leaves you with just the larger cities, towns, the motorways and main N-National and D-Departmental roads. The background also has a basic shading to show the mountainous or hilly parts of France. You can see a little bit, slightly to the east of Rouen. It also has the main rivers marked. These are useful only in as much as it's sometimes handy just to think, 'The river should be on my right....it's on my left....turn around'.

Most usefully, except that I cannot find a suitable picture to show it, the 726 map has all the recommended ‘Holiday’ routes, marked in green. These are not to be confused with the ‘green’ scenic routes mentioned in the opening post. Instead, they are Michelin’s suggested roads you want to get from A to B to C to D, over a large country but want to avoid the main arterial motorway and busier N roads.

The French name these holiday routes, Bis, giving them distinctive green and yellow road signs all of their own. The Bis road signs will often just show the major city on the Bis route. So, do not be surprised if you leave Troyes to find that the Bis signpost simply says Dijon or Lyon, maybe 500 kms away. The good news is that it’s a reasonably safe presumption that the French will repeat the sign at any significant deviation in the route. Following the Bis signs is so easy, rather like following a trail of breadcrumbs....

The towns with a green box around them indicate the towns on a green sign on a major road. I guess you might call them, 'Primary destinations'. This makes direction finding and route following easier. Here's an example from a sign on a French motorway, Carcassonne being shown in green and surrounded with a green box on the 726 map.

The places with a yellow box around them (Rouen, in the map above) show places also shown on the map's distance chart. This makes it easy to work out the distance between major places, something people sometimes overlook when looking at a large scale map. Also, very handy, the map also has the distances and estimated driving time between junctions shown in km's. These are shown between the little 'pins'. For example, From Gournay-en-B to Marseille-en-B is 22 kms (14 miles) on the D930, taking about 24 minutes.

Of course, the 726 map will not show you all the little roads, towns and villages. That is not its purpose. For these, simply arm yourself with Michelin’s excellent 1:200000 (1cm:2km) - 1/5 the scale of the 726 - maps, in a ring-bound book, or on single sheets for the areas you are travelling to or through.

These maps show you all the detail you will ever need and will match the map shown in the opening post.

The ring-bound book is about £12 (or just four pints of beer) but you get the whole of France. I have just a bought a new one, to replace a now very tatty 2004 edition; chances are it will save you money in the long run. It is too large to fit in a tankbag but will go into a pannier or on the seat behind you, no problem.

Use the 726 map to plot your basic route and the smaller scale map to fill in the details. Job done!

====

PS Next the road signs, often badly criticised but excellent once they are understood.

 

[Hustler]

I've got one of these 726 route planning maps, following a recommendation about a year ago, probably from here, possibly from Wapping.
So if it was from you Wapping, thank you.
And it also shows that people listen and take notice.

 

[Peter Pan]

Excellent thread Wapping. Thanks!

 

[Wapping]

Ooops, in an edit I lost the picture:

The towns with a green box around them indicate the towns on a green sign on a major road. I guess you might call them, 'Primary destinations'. This makes direction finding and route following easier.

Here's an example, where Salon-de-P and Avignon would both be shown on the 726 map as towns with a green box around them:

I also managed to at last find an example of the Bis sign. This one is at Cavaillon, in central Provence. It is pointing out the green ‘tourist route’ to Lyon, several hours drive away, but easy to follow.

 

[bavarian]

Funny that you mention the Col de Babaou - here's a pic of the scenic outlook, been there last year

 

[Wapping]

I have just been mucking around in viaMichelin's website. There is a new (or at least I think it's new) routing option, available from a list of choices, in a drop down menu.

The routing option is called 'DISCOVERY'.

Just insert your start and end destinations, even something as vague as a post code will do and see where it takes you.

You can then use the map's zoom in button, and pick up all the specific roads. From there it's very easy to see the non-motorway / N / D roads either side of the route and amend the plan to suit your individual needs.

It does, in one swell foop, go a long way to answering the oft heard, "Suggest me a route to........" question, nor is it limited to just France. I tried London to Provence in France, Malaga in Spain and Volgograd, Russia.

 

[Rodger B]

Dear Wapping
Thanks for your very useful advice on the UKUsers website about touring in France. I havent toured in France yet but I am planning a one week trip at the end of August. I want to do a round trip travelling to Northern Spain via Aix Le Bains and returning via Bordeaux and I reckon I need to cover about 300 to 400 miles a day. In your experience is this a realistic target? Bearing in mind that I am trying to get the balance right between motorway and scenic roads - yes, the purpose of the trip is to get to Spain but I do actually want to see something of France on the way! I will be camping and so, due to the luggage I dont want to be blatting along too fast either! Grateful for your advice. Cheers, Rodger

 

[Wapping]

Here is a good link to all the excellent maps and guides Michelin make:

http://www.michelin.co.uk/travel/catalogue.htm

 

[Hustler]

Here is a good link to all the excellent maps and guides Michelin make:

http://www.michelin.co.uk/travel/catalogue.htm

That is very useful Mr. Wapping, thanks very much.

 

[bladerunner]

There you go! Mapsource on the computer, a Michelin map on your knee and you can make some really great routes!

I agree:

One comment though - when you plot out your route on the computer - probably by "picking up" the yellow route and placing a via point on the desired road (IYSWIM), check at high resolution that it IS on your road and not up some farm track 1-2km off to the side on which you have placed the point.

Other wise you will blindly obey Mrs Garmin and turn up the little track only to be faced with a U turn on sewage on a 25% gradient with 3 snapping Alsations and an inbred with a stick (DAMHIK!)

 

[Wapping]

.....turn up the little track only to be faced with a U turn on sewage on a 25% gradient with 3 snapping Alsations and an inbred with a stick (DAMHIK!)

It wouldn't be a good tour without at least one farm yard U-turn - rabid dogs optional - with someone who has followed you going, "Pfff, w*nker, I knew this was wrong, huff" - but with no idea whether it's Christmas or Marble Arch.

 

[John Armstrong]

One comment though - when you plot out your route on the computer - probably by "picking up" the yellow route and placing a via point on the desired road (IYSWIM), check at high resolution that it IS on your road and not up some farm track 1-2km off to the side on which you have placed the point.

One trick I use because of 6.14.1 wanting to put little black flags whenever I want to follow a certain road, is to try and see if there's a waypoint I can "borrow". Only problem is that you then have to change the little black flag again for another waypoint symbol

Great advance there Garmin, in the functionality of the system

 

[Wapping]

How to chose a map.

Run your mouse over the image.

<IFRAME src="http://www.michelin.co.uk/travel/which-map.htm" width=800 height=1000></IFRAME>

 

[Wapping]

Last year I made good use of Michelin's new'ish plasticised map of France 791.

As it is at the same 1cm to 10km scale, it makes a great companion to Michelin's excellent stripped down Route Planning map 726*, essential for working out a basic simple route from A to B to C across a very large and often very rural country. It will certainly answer the "What's the best way to go?" question.

What the 791 map does is fill in lots (but not too much) of the smaller detail, enabling you to very quickly see how to get to cut a corner, get closer to a specific smaller town and / or find many of those 'great roads' everyone is always looking for. Above all it has just enough detail to be workable and to make good progress, but not so much that you might start to drown.

If anyone then wants to find every small village and byway, simply back up the two maps with one of Michelin's first class plasticised regional maps (511 thro' 528) at a scale of 1cm to 2km and you'll be set forever.


*Michelin were offering a very nice plasticised version of this paper map, too. Maybe foolishly I gave mine to someone and haven't managed to find one since. It had a black cover, different to the regular 726's blue. Pick one up if you see one on your travels, it will serve you well.

 

[Bumpkin]

All sage-like advice. Michelin maps can't really be beaten for route planning and general overview.

For those plotting routes for their Garmin using either Mapsource or Basecamp I can recommend ITN Converter which can import a Garmin GPX route file and display it overlaid on a Michelin map. It can then be tweaked, within ITN Converter, to abide by any deviations that take your fancy. Please note that it's advisable to then re-import the route into Mapsource/Basecamp and check that any added via-points are on the road, set to don't alert in Basecamp etc.

By default ITN Converter displays Google Maps (it uses the Google Maps API for route calculation/rendering whatever display mapping is used). You can change the display mapping to via Michelin in the map display settings.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[franco]

Top tip, just bought one off Amazon for 6.46EUR including postage My old French map dates from 2000 when I first moved over here

Cheers.../Rob