Lost in France

[Muzzman]

So here I am sitting in a friend of my brother in laws house in the countryside, between Poitiers and Angouleme, looking at unused tracks going left and right and my bike is back at home.

My problem is that I don't know if you can ride them. What maps etc do I need to find out if they are green lanes or whatever they are called over here? There is a Beta racing dealer in a nearby town so I will ask in there if there's anything local.

The house is a 3 bed 2 bath with a huge garage perfect for bikes and the guy has only used it twice this year and wants friends etc to come over to keep it in use, see where I'm going with this?

Any info would be appreciated (Stewie ?) preferably while I'm still here until Friday.

[Stewie]

Grab yourself an IGN map of your area, they do several maps, by scale 1:25K, 1:75K, 1:100K, it's hard to nail down the rights of way officially but the general rule is if it's signed closed or locked shut you can't ride it, everything else fill ya boots, if you really want to be sure head to the town offices
This is a great French mapping site http://www.geoportail.gouv.fr/donnees and you can still use ViewRanger to plot a route I hope this helps and have fun

[Muzzman]

Thanks Stewie,

I bought the local IGN map and looking at the legend I assume I'm looking for the 'roads not regularly maintained' and the 'car tracks' on the map. If so there's loads round here.

Murray.