Cycling UK Forum

So, Michelin maps are (or rather were) the best map to tour with - so I hear. You used to be able to buy a 1:200,000 scale road map, rip out the pages you need and voilà! You even had campsites and topography indicated as well as many minor roads.

I hear that this is no longer the case though and Michelin have cottoned on to the fact they were offering a very good all-in-one product so they had to do away with it and make many special editions for each feature us cyclists found very useful. Okay, maybe I'm being a little over the top here, but is there still such a thing on the market that is considered by the European cyclist to be the map to buy?

Maps with campsites, and I imagine you are looking mainly at France because of your descriptions. The problem with Michelin maps is that the campsites they show are only those from the Michelin camping guide and then only for the year that the map was issued. So a very small number of sites are shown. Not a lot of use really especially if you keep maps for a few years.

I do not know of maps that can be relied on to show campsites.

For riding, Michelin 1:200,000 are fine for cracking on a bit or a planning stage. I prefer to ride on IGN 1:100,000 but I use a lot of very minor roads. Each to their own. Given wildly different requirements there can be no "best of everything" map.

Campsites. I tend to decide on my direction from the comfort of home, I then look for a campsite a day's ride from the last one and also for a couple more say 10 miles short and 10 miles beyond in case I am having a good day or a bad day. I make a list of those before I go and that is about the extent of my planning.

Although not a map if you are looking for campsites in France this guide claims to list Every Campsite in France including all the French camping municipal sites. This guide is written in French, but does have an English key and is simple to use. Check out the zoom views to get a good overview of its format.

"This French campsite guide is published in March each year. This year's guide has 8626 classified camping parks, which includes all the French municipal campsites. There are also 919 aire naturalle camping sites, which are simple campsites found in rural locations and only open for a few months during summer. The campsite guide also includes 778 farm campsites, many of which will also be in the 'Bienvenue a la Ferme' scheme. These working farm sites and the aire natural rural parks are marked with a red tent symbol on the maps".

I agree with tatanab and think you need to do some planning before leaving, as campsites open at varying times of the year depending on their location. This can reduce the number open when touring out of season.

Similar thread where Bretonbikes has linked to the website that is used I'm conjunction with the book.


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megilleland wrote:Every Campsite in France

That's good to know. I've bought it from Amazon France before not knowing of a cheap UK source.

Watch out for Aires, many are nothing more than a patch of land for caravans or mobile homes, with a water tap and chemical toilet disposal. So not a lot of good to a touring cyclist.

Posted in wrong thread

I have a german / international map which shows all of france and the campsites and yha's etc. But its dated 1994.

I think its got a red cover red with yellow detail; Geomap or something like that. Definitely printed in Germany. There are AA and Phillips Atlas's. In the uk the phillips one (@ 1:100,000) does show campsites.