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Having just purchased a M/H I decided to invest in a copy of the 3rd edition of All the Aires France ready for our first trip when I take early retirement next Spring.
Good service from Vicarious as it arrived next day so I started to investigate suitable Aires using Google Maps.
On entering the GPS co-ordinates for Laruns in the Pyrenees it took me 30kms or so south over the border into Spain.
I thought this might be just some inaccuracy on Google Maps so got out my copy of the CC Europe 1 guide and entered the co-ordinates stated for the several camp sites around Laruns and everyone took my precisely to the location.
I then decided to check out the Calais location stated in the Aires guide and this took me to about 10kms south of Boulogne. The CC guide was accurate!!
Checked out 5 other locations and none of them came up in the correct location.
As a double check I typed GPS co-ordinates into my Garmin and all times CC was correct but Aires was miles out!!!
Has anyone experience this problem??? Need to contact Vicarious on Monday and express my concern.
Well done, Richard. In the last copy of All The Aires, we found a couple of inaccuracies (I think they were typos or printing errors). In this one, each has been spot on (we've now stayed at over 100 aires from the guide).
What I've doen is to download a set of POIs from TomTom called "Aires de Services Verifieé", and whenever we program in a new destination, I check that there's a POI at that location, just in case we made a mistake.
Also, we've adopted a slightly different method when visiting a new aire, after almost getting stuck between two parked cars in one town last month. When we get to within a couple of km of the destination, we then start using the signs on the roadside - sometimes our TomTom tries to helpfully send us on a 'quicker' route
We found this when using the Aires book but fortunately we only ever use the GPS as a rough guide (which is all you should ever do with it). We found one was incorrect but the others we used were fine.
In spite of what a lot of people tell you, civilian GPS units aren't that accurate - for truly accurate GPS you need to be in the US military or one of their allies!
We found the descriptions of how to get to the Aires from the book was of more use, if it happened to agree entirely with the GPS then that was a bonus!
As you have found out, there are numerous formats for displaying co-ordinates. There's supposed to be an international standard but like all of these things, there's arguments over whose standard is best and which one should be used.
As a result they persist in using their own standards! Helpful 'eh?
In spite of what a lot of people tell you, civilian GPS units aren't that accurate - for truly accurate GPS you need to be in the US military or one of their allies.
That's an interesting comment Mr W.
I'm not disagreeing of course, but what degree of accuracy do we need as civilians?
If I want to go to a particular Aire I always check it (if possible) on Google Maps - Street View. If it doesn't appear where it should be, it's invariably because the co-ordinates are wrong . . . not because the GPS gadget is inaccurate.
SatNavs and GPS dongles are generally accurate to within 10 metres or less, which is not good enough to send a missile up a terrorist's back passage (in his house!! ) but plenty good enough for finding an Aire.
The ones you simply cannot find from the published coordinates tell us more about the care taken by person who submitted them than the accuracy of the SatNav, don't you think?
(BTW - Mrs Zeb always has a paper map close at hand. Wonderful gadgets though they undoubtedly are, they are not the answer to a maiden's every prayer!!)
There are one or two mistakes in the new book but generally its accurate. I wish however they would just put the co-ordinates in decimal format though which is just easier to type in.
I love the way they put a copywrite notice every now and again in the book stating the GPS co-ordinates are theirs and cant be reproduced or given to others. How can you own a GPS co-ordinate?
______________________________________________________________ Hank the Tank has a website. Follow our adventures at http://www.hankthetank.co.uk
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France
Waving in memory of Peter and Fiona
Fighting with Mavisīs MESO WARRIORS 
) but plenty good enough for finding an Aire. 
