ha ha… absolutely not, Norman…
still got my maps…(although some are out of date now as new roads etc are being built)…
Maps and trusty compasses … always worth keeping.
I so agree! There is nothing worse than having printed off that bit of google maps you need, or entered an address in the sat nav, to find that the rocade ahead is blocked and you’ve been diverted off and you now have NO IDEA where you are going and you suspect that the people who are diving off down the side roads know a short cut and all you can do is stay in the queue because you don’t have a proper map with you. 
I didn’t understand the explanation, and was left wondering how the Hell I had managed to drive around Eastern Europe over five years, before Google, or GPS just locally bought maps (usually in Hungarian or Russian which I don’t speak) without getting seriously lost. Sun over my left or right shoulder and all that basic stuff?
I don’t run a gite but are they so disguised that people from Europe/UK can’t find one in France?
My Gawd the basic stuff that will die with me in a very few years
(wait for the applause at that last thought?)
Perhaps you will be embalmed and venerated… for your wisdom
and all your “old fashioned” stuff (maps etc) will be viewed as “marvels from another age”…
I value most highly the bits and bobs which have helped me find my way through life… (including a tiny, pocket compass from the late 19th century… which I inherited from my Dad… who inherited it from his Dad… 
)
Many gites are in small rural hamlets where road signs are missing, obscure or places in illogical positions. Of course people can navigate themselves to the hamlet…but the next few hundred metres can be frustrating. And we have been amazed at how bad people are at interpreting directions like “turn left at the war memorial, carry on past the football field and it is the second house on the left”. Despite the fact that the commune has put up a sign to us at the war memorial!! So the more ways we provide to help people find us the better.
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Talking about gîtes and holiday places…
Putting the GPS address on the website would surely be a good idea.
this would let folk zoom in on Google Earth (or whatever) to see for themselves what the area is like…
and give them an idea of the route v their maps…
just a thought…
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I wish i could put in longitude latitude in Amazon and the outer online shopping sites because I now I can’t have anything delivered here if it’s not with the local post lady until the get it sorted with real address can’t really understand why it’s complicated is it the local post lady putting a stop to it maybe to secure la post dominance it get feeling some time
I’m sure you are joking when you ask if it is the case
Your apparent lack of address is nothing to do with the Postal Service.
We have been told that our home is “impossible to find” by more than one Delivery Service… yet our home is obvious and others find it with ease.
Our Mairie received a similar notification… 
they were not amused and the delivery service got a good verbal thrashing…
NB Post Office knows where we live and never any problems with them… and we no longer use anyone who ships using the “bad” delivery services…
The only way she now where the property is was because I went down to the post office that’s in the mayor’s office and showed her on map where my house is can’t do that with the Dhl the don’t have local office
If there are other villages/towns with the same name as yours in different Departments, make sure your Department and Code Postal are very clearly shown all over your website and on your pages on the various booking platforms.
Despite this, our first ever guests thought we were near the other village of the same name 120km away and only stayed the one night.
Being very clear about the distance to all the nearest local shops and services from your location is important, as despite being in the middle of nowhere, some people expect to be able to walk to a bakery in under 5 minutes.
Well done… so you went to the Post Office and Mairie and informed them where you are now living… excellent.
they do not know (by crystal ball) where someone lives unless that person arrives to say “here I am” … as I have mentioned in my original post…
Now… have you put a huge sign on your postbox, by the roadside at your property ???
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I have wondered if it is worth raising large a tethered hot air balloon (with a downward arrow on it and big letters ICI) and lighting fireworks when a courier is trying to find us!
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Around here there is just the property name problem is that my neighbor has the same name on his and it seem to be not only me having the problem with this because I think it’s got to do with that allot of the big property’s around here where big land owners from the start and the have been selling of parts of their land for new builds over 50 years but the kept the original name of main house/property
The don’t seem to have a system with property owners in France like most countries have where you’re address is open information
You misunderstand…
The instances I have referred to happened due to the drivers not understanding French terms.
I can assure you… our address is straightforward… as is the address of the Mairie, just up the road…
but… we did have one funny incidence some years ago…
got chatting to a couple of very smartly dressed individuals… they asked if that church over there was xxx church.
Yes, says I… and left them to it…
A little later, they knocked on my door… looking forlorn.concerned…
What time is the wedding???
what wedding ???
aha… wrong xxx church… they made a call… leapt into their car and zoomed off… 
Friends do put a really huge notice on their gate… almost every time they come over… luggage goes missing 
One year they spent the first week with just hand luggage…
What do you mean?
That is the case here - my house gave its name to the lieu-dit so 6 or 7 houses as well as my own have the same address - which is why you put your name on the letter box and introduce yourself to the Mairie or the facteur/factrice. I have regularly had the facteur/factrice asking me if I know X person who has the same address.
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I had the same problem via World of Books, but smaller ’ balloons, three signs on each side of the Impasse, PLUS Metres from the Maire on the posts there (50m would you believe) and stll Colossimo couldn’t find us? To compound the lunacy the previous day had received the other part of the order!! They (Colosimmo) even stated our village didn’t exist! Only been here since before the French Revolution - including our house!!
Seriously what are you supposed to do with this level of incompetence? By comparison nver had a problem with La Poste or UPS.
Re. new address. Can’t speak for anyone else other than 1) sister in law and 2) ourselves in different villages but close. She received the official (stamped and sealed) notification - complete witha very smart metal street number plate to be fixed close to the post box. We, on the other hand have received the stamped and sealed notification from the Maire, telling us our new address is official, but the metal plates will arrive next month. They also advised the list of official sites, services etc, WE need to notify, plus all our personal ones eg banks, Paypal, eBay and so forth.
My assumption (dangerous?) has been putting the new address on GPS.
PS only slightly removed from the subject but has anyone else been having problems with Skype and that Paypal doesn’t open on eBay?
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But is that enough to reassure you, Norman? 
That’s what I have done but the mayor can’t do anything when is not coming with someone else then la post