I have only a little experience really of trailriding/finding in France there will be others with far more knowledge, As I am sure you know the proper lumpy bits of the country are a few hours even via autoroute from the boats. For myself if in rural areas as long as not totally flat on the trails, I need not be in the mountains, in actuall fact trailriding in mountains makes things a lot more complicated, they are often some kind of park with much reduced access one way or another, far fewer trail or even road options, increased difficulty/risk. Using a paper map is no problem to me done thousands of miles in Euro and beyond with maps in mapcases strapped on the tank
on road based trips. To use paper maps to find trails in France if at all possible imagine the scale needed, the number of maps, availability, cost , weight and volume, I am unsure if it is possible at all and pretty sure impractical unless you wanted to confine yourself in one area. As a basic GPS user even if you just use it as a waterproof map that is always on the right page in the right place at the right time showing detailed information down to trail level or not in one plastic box in front of you, in its most basic use thats all it has to be .
The important point of the GPS is that you are using the right map loaded on it, just as if you were buying a paper map different maps show different features/detail. Not all GPS units allow the use of different maps, some will allow more than one and you can switch between them to suite what info you want to see, it all is a bit of a side skill like maintenance, paper map navi, camping or whatever else that goes in to motorbike touring.
Not sure I am being really helpfull but thats my take anyway.
a couple of pics from France somewhere between Le Harve and Grenoble
- DSCN1964.JPG (110.78 KiB) Viewed 1860 times
- DSCN1973.JPG (200.25 KiB) Viewed 1860 times
