stik,
Flying in France easy? Errr....yes. Except when it isn't. And the easy bits pass in this thread as one sentence of looking at the view for an hour or so with nothing happening. The bits that aren't cover a lot of space. That's life...and flying, and writing.
Anyway, my conversation to the controller on approaching Tours in the first place went something like this:
ATC: Report Whiskey point (deciphered after several say agains, as his accent really was atrocious)
Me: Errr...Tours, I'm not familiar with the area. Where is point Whiskey?
Tours: "What? You don't KNOW Whiskey point!"
Me; Hold On. (Grabbing plate). Tours, I think I can find it, but is it a specific point on the ground?
No reply, ATC is busy directing someone else. By the time he comes back, I'm orbiting in roughly the right area and despite my pleas, he wants me to hold for ever.
So you see, by the time I came to leave, I just wanted to obey instructions and have as little conversation with him as possible. I could approximately find point Sierra, so what the hell?
Aussie Andy tells it like it is. I was prepared after this. When we went to La Rochelle, I had the approach points transferred to the chart. We didn't need them...something totally different happened! Read on to find out...but not yet; I'm taking my cat sitter flying this morning.
dublin pilot,
I used the Jeppesen Bottlang France Trip Kit. It's fine, the points are marked, it's just that they don't correspond to anything specific and aren't easy to find. Especially if you haven't prepared in advance. You see, flying in France is generally very informal, so when it isn't, it can catch you out.