Bonjour!
Aujour’hui nous allons parler avec Brunaud! Oh, sorry!
French is such a beautiful language, isn’t it? Today we will have an interview with a real Frenchman, Brunaud! He has been traveling by bike since 2012. It was that year when he joined ‘Loire à vélo‘ for a week in a ride from Tours to the Atlantic Ocean.
Brunaud has been using OpmAnd since 2017. He used to prepare his tracks on Openrunner and record his trips with OruxMaps. Now he also uses BRouter and IGN, in which Brunaud modifies some tracks in France.
'I find the better roads that do not have intense traffic or green paths. I set up an itinerary of various tracks. If there are any existing tracks on the Internet, I will get them. If, however, they are nowhere to be found, I draw them myself using BRouter or other applications.'
When it comes to functions Brunaud’s favourite are recording of the track and searching. OsmAnd has quite a few functions to choose from. Users can see different layers or calculate the approximate time of arrival, and many more!
Brunaud uses OsmAnd and BRouter to navigate and daily record his trip, while the search function comes handy when he needs to find any accommodations or shops.
'For my last trip to Portugal and Spain, I had 52 GPX files.'
Sero venientibus ossa means that once You are late, You get what is left. The same rule works for travelers. Thinking ahead and having a backup plan, therefore, are reasonable options.
'During a bike trip in France, I used the search feature to find a camping. Unfortunately, when I arrived at 8 PM there was no room for me. The travelers were squashed like sardines! So, I had to do another 20 km to finally find another camping.'
The best thing about OsmAnd is that everyone can modify the maps. However, not all of them are commonly known or used. If You happen to find an unmarked road or path - lucky You! Put it on the map and help others!
'The OsmAnd maps do not have distinctive features marking whether a road is gravel or asphalt. When I had a bike trip to Latvia, I tried to avoid gravel road. Hardly did I know that after a loop of 40 km I would end up at my starting point!'
Brunaud uses a Samsung A5 (2016) smartphone with quite a weak battery. Rarely does it last for more than a day of recording a trip. Fortunately, Brunaud has a power bank and a solar panel in order to keep his devices charged.
OsmAnd made traveling easier and more enjoyable for many people including Brunaud.'Now I can’t even imagine traveling only with some paper maps! How would I record my trips? Sometimes OsmAnd is not easy to use, but it always helpful!'
Brunaud also have a piece of advice for us!
'There are a few features that I would like the app to have. The first one is the addition of textual notes. So, one would record a note with Voice2Text feature and then it would appear in a text after clicking the marker. It would also be nice if we could export all the textual notes as JSON files. Here comes the second feature. Now, in the GPX files menu, we can choose a color for tracks. It would be even more convenient if we would be able to assign a color for the current track and different colors for other tracks. The third feature will come handy during a trip. It would be great if I, for instance, could easily visualize my current track and the elevation curve below. It is better to know the level of my suffering before it actually starts - I would just follow the elevation curve of the next kilometers. And my last suggestion is about a travelbook for OsmAnd. If You know PolarSteps, You will understand what I mean. During a trip, I would like to publish my track and notes (as markers on a map) for my friends and family on a web site. I would also make OsmAnd app more intuitive, for now, it is not easy to use. Lots of people turn to other applications like MapsMe because they are just more simple. Intuitive interface is what OsmAnd needs! I know that it is easier to say than do, but You can do it!'
Thank You, Brunaud, for the interview, and thank You, our faithful readers, for being with us! Oh, we have so much to do!
And we will!
See You!
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