The "standard" roadmap for France is the Michelin map. The maps show cities, towns, villages, and many interesting sites, such a windmills, lookout points, major hiking trails. The maps are useful for cyclists, truck drivers and house trailers, since gradients and low underpasses are clearly shown. Relief is shown with shadowing, and wooded areas are shown in green, so the maps give good perspective.

The classic map is the Michelin "yellow" map, with a scale of 1/200,000 (1cm = 2km).
	#245 - "Provence Côte d'Azur" has the entire southeast, from Nîmes to Italy and from the Drôm and the Hautes-Alpes south to the Mediterranean.
	#244 - Lyon-Grenoble covers the northern half of the Haute-Alpes, and points north and west.
Michelin "green" maps, for special regions of France, have a scale of 1/100,000 (1cm - 1km). These maps are ideal for cycling, car travel within the region and even hiking.
	#115 - "French Riviera; Côte d'Azur Alpes-Maritimes" is as the title states. It shows the entire Alpes-Maritimes department (06) and as far west as Fayence in the Var (83).
	#114 - "French Riviera; Côte d'Azur - Var" covers the Beyond region to the west of map #115, from Grasse to Marseilles, and from the coast up to the Gorges du Verdon.

Obtaining
The Michelin guides and maps are available world-wide. Try a book store in a city near you.
Contact Michelin directly at Paris - Tel: 33 145 66 12 34.
Amazon.com - From the Travel-Europe newsgroup: Amazon.com can sell you Michelin maps and will ship them to your doorstep in a day or two. I order lots of books from them, and my experience with them has been unfailingly and extremely positive.

[ Road Maps | Guides ] GuideBooks - Lodging, Dining

Even when the touristic information is in French, it's usually a simple exercise (for a non-French speaker) to extract the essential names, addresses, and phone numbers.

Le Guide du Routard

(for different regions or cities) by Hachette

11x20 cm paperback, very popular, with information on lodging and eating, emphasizing value and cost.

Les Nouveaux Gîtes Ruraux

by Gîtes de France; tel: Paris, (1) 49 70 75 75

13x20 cm paperback, one guide for all of France (explanations in French and English)

A Gîte Rural is an apartment or detached house with one or more bedrooms, living-dining room, bath and kitchen or kitchenette, priced by the week.

Camping Caravaning France - Michelin

15x23 paperback with green cover

Contains a selected list of campsites for all of France (multi-lingual explanations)

Michelin Red Guide

11x20 cm red hardcover

This is the classic guide to lodging and dining in France (multi-lingual explanations) with street maps of many towns and cities.

The entries are limited, with emphasis on tested quality.

Michelin Green Guides

12x26 cm green softcover

The Michelin green guides are really wonderful guides for different regions of France. They have information for travellers: where to go, what to see, itineraries for seeing the most in the limited amount of time you have. Supporting information for each region includes historical and geological as well as local architecture. The newer guides are beginning to use photographs, but historically they have used beautiful line drawings based on photos.
The green guides are produced in a variety of languages, depending on the version, and sold world-wide. Look for the colored slash across the top of the cover indicating the language (blue: French; bright pink: English). Three guides for the Beyond region are (the titles vary with the language):

- Alpes du Sud, Haute-Provence

- Côte d'Azur, French Riviera

- Provence

Everyman Guides

12x23 cm, printed cover over black plastic

The Everyman guides are similar to the Michelin green guides, but quite different in style and "feel". Information goes into more detail for some specifics, such as art and people, but not as broad or even for use while travelling.