Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)
  • Do the French have OS maps or similar?
  • IanW
    Free Member

    Going to France tomorrow, taking the bike doing some xc, just crossed my mind I really should have a map. Can I pop into waterstones and buy something like an OS.

    allthegear
    Free Member

    yes – IGN maps. They do a really good 1:25000

    You might struggle in Waterstones, though – near that London place? They definately have them in Stanfords or just buy one when you get there.

    Rachel

    allthegear
    Free Member

    Actually, failing that, IGN maps are available on Viewranger I think, if you have iPhone or similar thingy.

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    juan
    Free Member

    yes IGN even better than OS. If you can't find them in the UK, do not worry you'll probably be able to get them at the local newsagent in France

    paulrockliffe
    Free Member

    You can get IGN for MemoryMap if you visit dodgy website…..

    You aint seen me right?

    singletracksurfer
    Full Member

    yeah IGN maps

    edit Doh computer being too slow.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    How'd you work out that IGN are better than OS, juan?

    Oh wait, you're French, I remember now 😉

    highclimber
    Free Member

    for paper maps try HERE

    aP
    Free Member

    Just call in somewhere like Auchan in the area you're going to and they'll have maps.

    balfa
    Free Member

    Yes they are all online interactively at http://www.geoportail.fr

    You can plot them google earth style with they're software too. Cracking for checking out routes.

    stills8tannorm
    Free Member

    Just come back from riding in France … IGN maps are good but OS are still better.

    Most big supermarkets sold them so you shouldn't be stuck.

    IanW
    Free Member

    Thanks everyone, IGN it is then, I'll wait till I'm local and buy the paper version. I do have all the gadgets but I find theres just no substitute for a map first time round.

    Thanks again STW'ers

    Tyredocter
    Free Member

    The best maps for France tend to be the Michelin ones. Why not just Google Earth it and print it out?

    ciron
    Free Member

    Cotswold Camping do them, but Stanfords have a more complete range.

    Nowhere near as good as OS maps.

    singletracksurfer
    Full Member

    OS are best. na na.

    Ambrose
    Full Member

    I used to be a cartographer. OS are definately best.

    You want the Blue ones for 1:25 000. Clicky

    Moses
    Full Member

    Michelin? at 1:100k / 25k ?
    Nah, IGN, they are better than OS for reading trails- they stand out more. The paper isn't great quality though.

    theflatboy
    Free Member

    word. IGN bleu.

    Ti29er
    Free Member

    If you know your onions, you'll know the OS is notoriously inaccurate.
    I travelled with some Dutch cartographers (map makers) a while back and their stories of how "approximate" the OS mapping system was and how they make things look good but completely out of scale and with a high level of inaccuracy really opened my mind to the possibility (fact) that my once held belief that the UK's mapping was the very best and super accurate, was in fact, the butt of most of the world’s cartographers.

    Sad but true. 🙁

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    Ti29er – Member
    If you know your onions, you'll know the OS is notoriously inaccurate…

    Ah, so it's not really my fault I get lost so often 🙂

    BenjiM
    Full Member

    IGN maps are available at Go Outdoors too.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Inaccurate where? Only things I've found have been paths missing from the map or the ground in certain places. Which is understandable to a point since paths move and change.

    ebygomm
    Free Member

    It sounds like maybe those Dutch cartographers hadn't got their head round the British National Grid. Whilst the OS has a lot of faults, notoriously inaccurate is not one of them.

    Of course you can't draw roads to scale when you're making 50k maps if you want them to be visible, but that doesn't mean they're inaccurate.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    From Wiki:

    Ordnance Survey's flagship digital product, launched in November 2001, is OS MasterMap. This is a database that records every fixed feature of Great Britain larger than a few metres in one continuous digital map

    Holy cow, that's some map!

Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)

The topic ‘Do the French have OS maps or similar?’ is closed to new replies.