Im hoping some one can advise

Anniesboy, with the greatest of respect, you're not offering a lot of information to let someone help you.

I presume you're in the UK? Have you checked the options with your own network?

Does your phone have the possibility to add an extra sim card (dual sim)? Then the option is to buy a sim card in France. Google gives me this: https://www.esim.net/countries/how-to-buy-a-sim-card-in-france/#h-where-can-i-get-a-sim-card-for-france

Is your phone e-sim compatible? That may be a solution.

Are you happy to replace your current sim with a French one for the duration of your visit? That is another solution. Or toggle between the two.

After that, it's a matter of using CT wisely. With maps downloaded in advance and pre-prepared routes saved for offline use there should be no issue in using the CT app to navigate offline. I'd strongly urge you to test this out in advance on routes at home. 

Creating/editing routes will require online access but depending on your needs, local free wifi (morning and night) may be enough. 

Judicious use of screengrabs can be useful as an offline backup of a route on the map. 

While I'd never recommend Google Maps for bike navigation, it does have the useful feature of 'saving' maps that can be used offline, showing our location. A handy tool for cycling in strange parts. 

If it's practical advice you're after, make sure you have downloaded the maps for where you will be travelling.

Make sure you download the routes you wish to travel. 

To avoid roaming charges, keep your 'data' switched off.

The two things you need to know to reduce data use in the cycle.travel app are:

• Download the basemap for use offline. You can do this by going to the Settings menu and choosing ‘Offline maps’. Tap the squares you’ll need and then Download.
• Download your planned routes for use offline. To do this, go to the route list and find the route you want. On iPhone, swipe to the side and then press the blue download icon; on Android, long-press the route and choose Download in the menu that appears. A phone icon appears by the route to show it’s downloaded.

You can then navigate along your route without using any data – you can even turn data off entirely if you like.

Note that route planning, place search etc. always requires a data connection.

Thank all for your replies, I will have all routes download along with maps.I will have WiFi available in evenings. I will check my usage regularly just to avoid any nasty bills 

I have just return from France, Richards reply 7/6/24 was just what I needed thank you.

The only thing that CT cant be expected to cope with is the very frequent route barree

However CT can get you round that as you can see where you (blue dot on map)

The only real problem I had was my Iphone screen frequently went so dim it was unreadable hopefully just because of temperatures of 32c

That’s great – really pleased it worked for you.

The screen does auto-dim if you have “Dimming between turns” selected, but you can tap it at any time to wake it up. But even without that I do find iPhone displays can be pretty unreadable in the sun!

It was not dimming between turns,the screen was so "black" I couldn't see to switch it off/on.

I did have dim between turns on genitally which worked well when the weather was cool but problem arose when temperature went above 30+ 

I will use it again know home just to attempt to establish if it is temperature related or some other problem, it is Iphone 13 so not that old

There is a persistent bug (seemingly in iOS itself) where the iPhone screen will get "stuck" on very dim when using the "dim between turns" feature. There are already one or two threads on it in this forum. 

My workaround is to press the side button to lock the screen, then tap the screen and unlock -- with FaceID your iPhone 13 should unlock quickly. Then you're right back in the cycle.travel app and the screen brightness is back to normal.

Brad, thanks for that suggestion

“On iPhone, swipe to the side and then press the blue download icon”

Woah, awesome!  Can I suggest you change the UI a bit though?  This isn’t exactly discoverable

Woah, awesome! Can I suggest you change the UI a bit though? This isn’t exactly discoverable

@Nobody 99, on my android app, in the 'Settings' there is a 'help' option which gives a crash course in the operation of the app. The above info (and other) is available to read there.