Best Maps for French Mountains?

Arequipa

Evening! I have just returned from a trip to Nice & a few laps up & around the Col de la Madone. While there we used local tourist maps & I only used my iPhone (google maps + GPS etc) a little to save against exorbitant data/roaming charges.
This summer I'm planning a trip to the Alps with a few mates.

With this in mind can you recommend a good map(s) to purchase, book or website which will cover these routes & enable us to plan.

None of us, as yet have a Garmin GPS device!

Thanks a mil!

Arequipa.

Greyspoke

I've used the IGN (www.ign.fr) "Carte de Promenade" series and have found them pretty good. They are at quite a small scale -1:100,000 (1cm=1km) but consequently cover a large area and show contours and the minor roads which is probably what you're looking for. When I got them a couple of years ago they were just over 5 euro. Very good value!

Arequipa

Hey! Thank you for your reply!
I had a road map of France a few years ago but lost it somewhere.
I will check this map out!

Cheers!

ednwireland

http://www.viamichelin.com/web/Cartes?layers=0001&strLocid=32NDJpMzE1Mzg3NTAxMGNORFV1TURrd016UT1jTmk0d05qUTNNdz09

or get a michelin road map - all the climbs are on them

Arequipa

Thank you sir!

TheBlaaMan

Yeah, as Ed says, you can't go wrong with Michelin. In paper maps, they do a National (1:1,000,000 scale, Red), Regional (1:200,000, Orange) and Local (1:150,000,yellow) series, and they all cost €6-7 each. Obviously, the higher the scale (smaller the ratio above) the more detail you get in the map and I'd advise for any precise planning, you'll need the local/yellow series. (http://www.michelinonline.co.uk/travel/loc.htm). Easons do most, and can order any you want (as can most bookshops who stock maps/know their business), or you can order online via Michelin, or but when you get there. There'll not be much difference in price regardless.

Have fun!

Hermy

+1
Have several of the yellow Michelin maps and good maps they are.

velopeloton

Michelin are by far the best.

blorg

To be honest if you are specifically doing cols, it is quite hard to go wrong. There is generally only one road going up the mountain. Even a quite high-level map would do. For the Raid Pyreneen I think we used a single map that covered the entire French and Spanish Pyrenees and it was more than clear enough (I did also have a Garmin.)

Also check out Offmaps which will give you Openstreetmap maps offline on your iPhone.

Arequipa

Thank you for your replies!
When we were in Nice last week we initially found it tricky to find the route from Menton up the Col de la Madone: then the issue was going deeper into the mountains and looping back to Nice avoiding busy motorways: we made it back to Nice but some of the roads nearer to Nice, were a bit busy & unnerving!
We used a couple of tourist maps which were super crap!

Arequipa.