Hi People,
Does anyone know of a guide to the map sybols found on the french IGN Top 25 blue maps?
I've dug around a little, but can't seem to find one.

Having just come back from hols, I found the map differentiation between roads ( country lanes ) and what we'd call 'bridleway type' tracks to be inconsistent, and not too sure about what was legal or not.
It's just left me wondering a bit…. and I'd like to try and make sense of the maps for further hols!

Can anyone point me in the direction of a symbols guide?
cheers
Q

Is there not a guide on the maps themselves? I seem to remember there was…

nickc: Yes, but very fundamental. They also vary from map to map.
I happened to be in a campsite where it was on the join of 3 maps. After my first trip, I discovered the track I was trying to take but couldn't find on map 1 wasn't shown on the overlap on map 2! The designation of this track varied between maps. One said 'possibly variable road surface' and another siad the same but ' might be restricted entry' ( or words to that effect! )
They were all of the same print date and map version, but they really did vary – hence trying to find out what variety of tracks/raods are marked and how they differ.
Q

argh… double post – sorry forgot how to edit!
Q

The IGN series isnt digitised (the onlineversion is just an image of the original hardcopy 🙂 ) so you will get discrepancy across map boundaries. Also whilst the edition may be consistent, the survey may not be. I notice a difference in the key between Edition 3.x and 2.x on some of mine BTW.

They're also french so have a propensity to make guesses 🙂

There's some maps I have where marked trails appear and disappear in the middle of forests and spaces without ever reaching other junctions or landmarks. They are estimated from aerial surveys and so if they disappear from view they stop drawing them, rather than do a ground survey to corroborate.

Thanks Stoner – that makes a load of sense, especially the 'guesses' bit!
One map gave the 'road' as possibly private, but how on earth do you know?
It went from 'road' to 'uneven road' then back to 'road' on the map. The last bit was a wonderful downhill bit, deeply grooved out due to flash rain storms taking it down to bare rock in places. It was also part of the GR trail so I wasn't worried about it being illegal.
I suppose I'm just curious as to how to interpret the maps propperly.
…..and makes you realise how much we take OS maps for granted!
cheers
Q