I generally don’t miss anything about the UK, or compare X in one country against X in the other as they are just different, neither better nor worse.
BUT, having got a touch lost this afternoon on a steep climb in blazing heat (and having to save the last bottle of water for the dog just in case) I found myself yearning for an OS map rather than an IGN one. Is this just rose tinted vision, or am I right in thinking that they are more clearly drafted?
as en ex-OS surveyor I can clearly say the OS maps (large scale) give clearer detail than IGN maps. However when hiking in the middle of nowhere in the Drome it is fairly easy to follow the GR routes.
Yes GR routes tend to be well waymarked…but we weren’t on a waymarked path!
smart phones now have so many apps that just need gps so easy to find your route#
As long as you have a smartphone and there is a network…
Even so, I like to have a paper back-up.
Trouble is with GPS Harry, you can put in your destination, it will try to take you there, but it won’t show the hazards in between, saw a perfect example once on the coast of Gallicia, ship high on a reef, the GPS had not considered, that a reef was between La Coruna and Cape Finisterre, on a map/chart, a navigator would/should, have noticed it. GPS will give you a route, but GPS, dosen’t know, if the route is hazard free 
as a seasons hiker ive used many phone apps designed by hikers for hikers.
Yes getting the paper out and following the routes are great but when you get lost or problems occur you need a back up.
https://www.gaiagps.com/ is the best one I liked.
you do not need a network just GPS and that is pretty much everywhere.
Just not true Harry, I too have spent years, walking, climbing and sailing, before phones, apps and GPS were even dreampt of.
GPS is only even designed to be, An AID To NAVIGATION, and a Very useful one it is, but there’s a lot more to navigation, than GPS Alone can Provide, as a ‘Seasoned Hiker’, at least, you must appreciate that surely. 
maybe re read my comments.
All I am doing is responding to a thread where someone found themselves stuck.
My GPS app was only ever if I found myself with problems . While I had the app that i was a member with I loved my tatty maps. I started getting lifts without mum and dad coming a 14 years old and was so happy to be out and about and back then there were no phone apps.
Bit like my books, cannot get better than the feel of the paper when you read.
I remember a guy turned up one day when we had organised a walking weekend in wales, think he had every gadget going and no one wanted him in their group to the point he went off and did his own thing. Map and compass any day of the week for me.
I wasn’t completely stuck, as pretty confident in reading the landscape so more 20 minutes of annoyance rather than anything drastic. It was just that it would all have been so much easier with an OS map rather than an IGN one!
Maybe one day I’ll sort out using my phone, but I do find that friends who use them miss lots of interesting things as they are not keeping track of where they are.
We used to have a no phones policy on the walks. you could have it with you but you could not use it while on walks. People who did found themselves left alone.
Walking for me was always an escape away from all the technology.
I was sat in the garden tonight with the dogs and my wife said to me why are you sitting out there and i was like just having fresh air, she went back to watching tv, this was a 9 pm.
Th phone apps are great in an emergency and when and if other things fail. Luckily I never had call to use my app ever for myself. I used to enjoy getting lost.
Given you only had one spare bottle of water for animals and humans in intensive heat for me would signify a problem.
First time walking up a Fell, in the Lakes, I was11, one of my teachers cajoled me out one Sunday, we climbed Herdus, near Ennerdale, it was an ‘orrible day, drizzle, we plodded up, me wondering what are we doin’ ‘ere?
About 50ft from the top, we emerged from the clouds, to face a beautiful cloudless sky and the higher peaks stickin’ through the cotton wool, that was me hooked on fell walking and later, climbing. I was lucky to live in the Lake District
we had the Yorkshire dales and rocks to climb. I loved being outdoors from a very young age. my uncle and aunty used to come and pick me up on weekends it was brilliant.
Ah that explains a lot 'arry tha’s Yorkshire 
stop calling me arry it is not my name.
Sorry 