NeoY2k

Thank you all.
Yeah you pretty much described what I want to take for navigation. It will be an eTrex 20 or 30 that will provide me turn by turn over OSM topographic maps for routes that will have been planned in advance on the computer.
It is not there to replace paper map, but provide me clear and simple directions.

I wil be bringing a laptop for general use, so will have the maps in the computer (off line use). It will weight a lot less and take way less room (thinkpad x62s with double battery, good for >7h) than paper maps showing small roads for 4000-5000km diagonally through Europe.

I have no iPhone, nor any smartphone, and will be free camping so the battery life would be clearly not sufficient.
But I will ride in the morning and afternoon with some time in the middle, which will allow me to charge AA batteries for the eTrex and the laptop, doing it every 3 days at most sounds reasonable.

Don't get me wrong, I love paper maps. Especially our national IGN ones that are beautiful and precise, with every park/wood/forest/source/church mapped ant lots of "historical" places pretty much unknown. But I like to stare at them at my desk or in the tent. They now are available online too, and it's true you don't get as much the "big pucture" and mental wandering you get with a paper map.

But I can't seem to be able to ride following a paper map on small backcountry roads without missing a turn every 5 to 10km, much to my despair!