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3 May 2014
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Toronto, Canada
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PS: If you have a Garmin GPS, investigate purchasing a pre-programmed data chip from Garmin with the French roads on it. It will probably cost you about $100, but that will be money well spent. You can (and should) get that chip before you leave Canada, you won't be able to buy it at a store in France.
If you don't have a GPS here in Canada, stick your head into a Media-Mart or other big box electronics store in France and buy a GPS on your first day. It will make a HUGE difference to your stress level and greatly enhance your driving pleasure.
Some rental cars come with a GPS, but the quality of the built-in GPS devices varies a lot. It will probably be cheaper for you to buy a map chip for your Canadian GPS - or even buy an inexpensive GPS at a store in France - than it will be to pay the premium for 2 or more weeks to have a rental car with a GPS in it.
Michelin road maps are by far the very best for route planning. They are expensive, but worth it. You might be able to buy them in Canada. Try and get a map that just shows 1/4 of France (the part you are going to) - if you get the map showing the entire country, it won't have sufficient detail for the 'Departmental' roads.
Michael
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3 May 2014
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Sound advice as always from you, Michael. I know from experience that North American visitors think about doing 500 or 600 miles days, and whilst it's do-able, it's no fun, and they just don't get to see the country from motorways. Now I have sold my much loved Pan, I will be enjoying my riding on my restored Airhead at a more leisurely pace ;-)
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3 May 2014
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Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Barcelona
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Hi Gary
What they said... pretty much.
You can drive from Paris, touch Italy, south of France, northern Spain and get back to Normandy in 6 days - but you'll be travelling almost non-stop to do it, and passing right by lots of things worth seeing without the time to give a second glance. If that is your bag, go for it. Not sure I'd recommend it though - especially if you want to do some stuff on the way.
Camping in France is easy - really easy. They have about half of the EU's registered campsites, and most towns will have a signposted municipal one which are good value and (usually) well run. You should not have a problem with space at that time of the year.
If you do want to hit the mountains and have a sneak peek at Spain - have a look at this website: The Spanish Biker | The invaluable guide to motorcycling in Spain – By Simon Rice Simon is a mate and decent bloke - the info is pretty good too!
But, in short, best to keep your distances just that... short(er). I once drove from my home in Barcelona to my home in Wales, UK. Took 23 hours in total (inc ferry) door to door. Those sort of runs are possible - but I had to do that then - I usually ride my bike and take 3 days to do the same.
Have fun though - no matter how you put the trip together - the jump sounds great!
P
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3 May 2014
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Join Date: Jun 2000
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PanEuropean
PS: If you have a Garmin GPS, investigate purchasing a pre-programmed data chip from Garmin with the French roads on it. It will probably cost you about $100, but that will be money well spent.
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Or download the Openstreetmap of France for free and load onto a SDcard and insert into Garmin device. IMHO OSM is better than/ as good as Garmin proprietory mapping software.
Free worldwide Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap
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21 May 2014
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Join Date: Mar 2008
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Thanks for all the info guys.... Much appreciated, especially the info about the radar cams  We will be in a car for this and long distance isnt much a concern for me. I used to drive 6.5 hours 1 way to work 3 times a week. But, I dont wanna be in the car and not see things. The wife wants to hit alot of countries and figure out which ones she wants to come back to later and send more time in those places. Personally Id like to just hit spain for the first week then back to normandy for D DAY and then over to italy, but sounds more like its gonna be a day or 2 here and a day or 2 there sorta trip. Gonna try to not use the highways as much as possible, time allowing... but I might have to opt for that for long legs of travel. Thanks for the links as well... I grabbed 2 sim cards and hope to DL some of those maps etc.
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