My French Holiday July 2004

[DRP]

Hi all.
Packed the camping equipment in the car the evening before as we had an early start 04:45. All of Europe loaded onto 2.2G microdrive, but only essential maps selected with SmartST. Pre programmed the routes into three stages & saved them into favorites.
Dover.
Sille-le-Phillepe (Le-mans).
Sarlat (Dordogne).

Set off from home the route took us (wife & I) down to the M4, off at junction 10 for Bracknell. Picked up the M3, M25, M26 & M20 then Dover ferry terminal. Meeting our friends who had traveled down the day before, towing a very large double axle caravan. 1hr & 20 minutes later Calais. I used the GPs on the ferry to track the crossing (out of curiosity), so as we left the port it did not take any time to find its position.

Selected Le-mans from favorites & off we went.
The route took us in the direction of Boulogne, Abbeville, Rouen, Evreux, Nonancourt, Ige & then to Le Chateau de Chanteloup at Sille-le-Phillepe. One problem at this point, I set the favorite up using address post code which took me to the centre of the town (try turning an 8m caravan around to go back the way you have just come). Asked a local the way, 2 left turns & we arrive. Journey time 6 hrs, set the precise location & added to favorites, end of day one.

Day 2.
Up at 06:00 for the long push down to Sarlat. Powered up the GPS, selected Sarlat & set off. The route took us to Tours, Chatellerault, Limoges & down to Sarlat. The same problem as at Chanteloupe, the GPS took us to the centre of the post code zone. Le Moulin du Roch is about 5 miles outside Sarlat. The GPS got us to about 1.5 miles away from our destination. Set the precise location & added to favorites.
Journey time about 7 hrs.

About the GPS. Could not fault it, the maps were spot on, not as detailed as the UK ones some lakes & rivers missing, but roads & even tracks were all in place. Also all the POI’s that I had selected were all in the right places. Only had 2 miss directions on roundabouts but the map was correct.

One major problem, on a day out, turned GPS on, selected Navman no maps, no microdrive. Removed microdrive (not that easy to remove. As any one that has one knows). Soft reset PPC fitted a camera CF card and PPC found that. Refitted microdrive, rebooted and all is well. This happened twice during the holiday, maybe because of the heat of the day (It was not left in the car) or perhaps of the vibration of the Arkon,

To come back home I reversed the three downward stages, all went well until after le-Mans. BT dropout time & time again. Left it turned off between Boulogne & Calais, until we got off the ferry at Dover. It took about 15 minutes to get a fix at Dover, but it was thundering at the time. 2 more BT dropouts on the way home. (I have never experienced BT dropouts at this scale before).

My verdict, I give it 10 out of 10 (even with the BT dropouts). It did the job that I had expected it to do & made my holiday a little les stressful (not falling out with the wife. Her navigation skills are not the best).
Single journey 838 miles. Total mileage 2014 miles.
If any Navman staff read this let me say thank for such a good product.

Regards DRP.

Navman 4410, SmartST version 2.00.0036 SP2. Ipaq 2210 PPC, Microsoft Pocket PC version 4.20.1081. Microdrive 2.2G with Europe maps. MS Pocket streets. Arkon powered suction mount with speaker. Vauxhall Zafira 2.0L DTI.

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