Buy an English GPS for France?
October 7, 2009 6:59 AM   Subscribe

What's the best way to buy a GPS in the US for someone who lives in France but speaks English?

I recently visited my mother, who lives in France and it was clear that a GPS with voice navigation would make her life easier. I want to buy her such a GPS. However I live in the US so I'd probably want to buy one in the US and send it to her. She speaks good enough French but I think it would be a lot easier if the GPS could give directions in English.

Garmin GPSes that have European map databases seem to cost a small fortune. Is it possible to buy a GPS without the US map database to save money?
posted by schwa to Shopping (4 answers total)
 
Response by poster: Hmmm woot.com has a nice little cheap tomtom for sale and I just checked - a map of France for the Tomtom is 50GBP. That's affordable. Problem solved.
posted by schwa at 7:09 AM on October 7, 2009


Your best bet would be to buy at amazon.co.uk and entering your mother's as the delivery address. Most of the GPS come with maps of the EU (France included). The recorded directions come in a variety of language.
posted by Baud at 7:15 AM on October 7, 2009


Why don't you buy one on a french website (like fnac.com, or even amazon.co.uk) and ship it to her directly?

Almost all brands have a wide choice of voices in most major European languages, because they make the same product for a market that incluces Spain, France, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Italy etc.

The TomTom Europe One, for example, comes standard with maps of all European countries.
posted by NekulturnY at 7:17 AM on October 7, 2009


You can buy a regular Tom Tom in the U.S. and add the option of with European maps. You can set the European maps for an English voice. Then mail it to her. With the exchange rate being what it is, it might be cheaper to do this instead of getting it in France.
posted by Elsie at 8:37 AM on October 7, 2009


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