National, or IGN. It produces maps at 1:25,000 and 1:100,000 scale, covering the whole country.
The most economical way of acquiring all the IGN mapping needed to follow the GTMC is to buy the official French guide to the trail, which includes all the IGN mapping at 1:50,000 in the form of a series of leaflets (see Appendix E, Further Reading). The route of the GTMC is highlighted on these maps (occasionally not exactly as waymarked on the ground).
The alternatives are to acquire either the IGN 1:25,000 (see below) or 1:100,000 scale sheets to cover the route. The 1:25,000 maps are excellent, but a total of 21 sheets is required to cover the whole of the route from Clermont-Ferrand to Sète (see below). The 1:100,000 maps, although ideal for the road cyclist, are not always detailed enough for mountain bikers following the GTMC.
1:25,000 Maps
Walkers will need IGN 1:25,000 maps. These excellent cartes de randonnée give detailed topographical information, including long-distance and local routes, as well as useful information for tourists. The following sheets cover the entire route, in order, from Clermont-Ferrand to Sète.
2531ET (Chaîne des Puys), 2432ET (Massif du Sancy), 2534OT (Monts du Cézallier), 2535O (Murat), 2535E (St-Flour), 2635O (Lavoûte-Chilhac), 2636O (Le Malzieu-Ville), 2636E (Saugues), 2637E (St-Amans), 2737O (Grandrieu), 2738O (Le Bleymard), 2739OT (Mont Lozère), 2640OT (Gorges du Tarn), 2641ET (Mont Aigoual), 2641OT (Millau), 2641O (Nant), 2642O (Le Caylar), 2642ET (St-Guilheim-le-Désert, 2643E (Clermont – l'Hérault), 2743ET (Montpellier), 2645ET (Sète).
The E and O at the end of each sheet number stand for est (east) and ouest (west) respectively. Areas that are particularly popular are mapped by special tourist sheets, with wider coverage than the standard sheets, and offering good value for money. These are called Top 25 maps, and are identified by a T after the map sheet code. Sheets without a T in their code are in the Série Bleue (Blue Series). The latest editions of both the Top 25 and Série Bleue 1:25,000 maps have special gridlines that allow your position on the map to be located using a GPS device.
1:100,000 Maps
At the time of preparing this guidebook (2009), the IGN 1:100,000 series is in the process of being radically updated, and when finally issued will be re-numbered, easier to read, carry more tourist and long-distance trail information than the previous series, and be GPS-compatible. This new Top 100 series of 76 sheets will cover the whole of France, compared with the 74 sheets of the old series.
IGN 1:100,000 (to be phased out by 2010/11, but some libraries will no doubt carry them for some time) sheet numbers 49, 50, 58, 59 and 65 cover the whole of the GTMC from Clermont-Ferrand to Sète.
IGN Top 100 series (to be fully introduced by 2011/12) sheet numbers 155, 162, 163 and 170 cover much of the route, but the maps for the Clermont-Ferrand region had not been issued when this guide was published.
Other Maps
Road cyclists can either use 1:100,000 IGN maps, or some of the road maps in either the Michelin Local or Region series. The following maps are required to cover the entire route.
Michelin Local Series 1:150,000 and 1:175,000: 326 (Allier, Puy-de-Dôme), 330 (Cantal, Lozère), 339 (Gard, Hérault);
Michelin Region Series 1:200,000: 522 (Limousin), 526 (Languedoc-Roussillon).
Free city maps, available from tourist offices in Clermont-Ferrand and Montpellier, are useful for negotiating your way out of these cities, after which they can be discarded.
Both IGN and Michelin maps can be ordered from several British outlets (see Appendix F, Useful Contacts), or bought from numerous bookshops and newsagents locally in France. Always ensure that you are buying the latest edition.
Road Numbering
A word of caution: the road-numbering system in France is undergoing long-term reorganisation, and several road numbers will eventually change, which may include some of those in this guidebook, but vigilance, common sense and using the latest editions of maps should avoid any uncertainty. Readers can help by writing to or e-mailing the publishers if they spot any road numbers that need to be amended in the next edition (see the Advice to readers’ for details).
Waymarking
The majority of the GTMC has standard waymarks. These consist of a square waymark with a white background on which is a red equilateral triangle next to two red circles. Alongside these symbols are the letters GT, followed by ‘Grande Traversée du Massif Central’. The majority of these waymarks are either 12 × 12cm or 10 × 10cm in size, but some are smaller. Other mountain biking or cycling trails have the same ‘triangle and two circles’ waymark symbol, but these are in a variety of colours (for example black, yellow, brown) other than red, and do not include the words ‘Grande Traversée du Massif Central’. These waymarks often carry the letters VTT (‘Vélo Tout Terrain’) and FFC (‘Fédération Française de Cyclisme’), and are found on fences, walls, posts, telegraph poles, trees and so on.
Waymarking on the GTMC (Stage 1)
Waymarking of the route is generally of a high standard – usually quite frequent and well placed – so you should have few problems with navigation. But do bear in mind that, over time, signs can be damaged, moved, hidden, stolen, or lost for a variety of reasons (tree-felling is just one), so always be alert. Waymarking, of course, can never be perfect, and no doubt there will be times when you are having difficulty finding the route, and there will be no helpful waymarks to assist you, whereas it always seems that when the trail is obvious, there is an abundance of waymarks!
There is no GTMC waymarking for the first few kilometres of the route – from the centre of Clermont-Ferrand to Durtol on its outskirts. Thereafter the standard waymarking system is used all the way until a little after La Couvertoirade on Stage 14, with the exception of the central zone of the Cévennes National Park, where GTMC waymarking is prohibited. The GTMC enters and leaves the park on several occasions during Stages 9 to 13 (this is shown clearly on the maps in this book), when special care must be taken with route-finding. However, following the route description in this book, together with careful map and compass work, should result in a straightforward passage though these areas. Remember too that waymarking of GR, GR de Pays, horse-riding trails and PR trails (see below) does continue in the park, which helps greatly in the absence of GTMC waymarks.
Soon after La Couvertoirade the GTMC waymarking described above ends, but is replaced by waymarking for the GT34 – the Grande Traversée de l'Hérault – with which the GTMC is coincident until Saint-Jean-de-Fos, at the end of Stage 15. This waymarking is quite different from that described above. Each waymark now consists of a short green post bearing a GT34 and Hérault region stickers.
From Saint-Jean-de-Fos to La Paillaide, on the outskirts of Montpellier, Stage 16, the GTMC is coincident with the GR653, which bears the standard red and white waymarking of a GR trail. Some sections of this trail are very difficult for a mountain bike, so if you decide to avoid them, don't follow the red and white flashes in these areas, but follow the road bike alternative route instead.
Waymark post for GTMC and GT34 (Stage 14)
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