Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
think and listening to the whole answer, however long it takes.
Give your thanks and head off in the direction he or she has
advised, even if you suspect that his or her answer is wrong.
Why the French Dislike Maps
'A map without a compass is a useless thing.'
—Charles Stockton
If you don't speak French and don't want to ask directions, you are
going to have to rely on a map and a compass. It is often overcast
in France and the compass will help you establish north. With any
luck, someone will stop as you look at your map and offer to help
you. Looking at a map in Paris is a clear signal someone is lost and
foreign. (We already know the French don't look at maps.)
I love maps and the French produce fabulous ones. When I i rst
lived in Paris and was asked directions, I would proudly reach for my
lovely Paris map, only to i nd my interlocutor's face suddenly drop
in anguish. If I actually opened the thing, he would recoil, looking
desperately around for another stranger to pull into our discussion.
He didn't want a map. He just wanted an answer.
The French tend to prefer asking a person for information in all
things. They don't like referring to maps, guidebooks, train tables,
even menus in restaurants. They want to have a dialogue with
a person.
There is a good reason for this, according to Raymonde Carroll.
A map gives a great deal of information that is superl uous to the
problem at hand. A person, however, is likely to give only the
information needed to solve the specii c problem.
As a result, the information services at the French train stations
are often large and quite busy. People line up or take a number and
wait patiently their turn, even though the answer to their question is
probably found in the timetables (
horaires
) on display racks nearby,
or on the internet at sncf.com. The French prefer a discussion with
another person.
Such faith in human beings and unwillingness to cope with large
amounts of extraneous information has created a breed of ofi cial
French information-givers that can frustrate map lovers like myself. I
often feel that people in France are not giving me all the information I
should have. This is probably my fault. I haven't explained myself well
enough in French, or I haven't engaged the fellow in polite enough
conversation that he wants to volunteer extra information. He is trying
to efi ciently answer my question. We will talk more about the art of
getting information in France in a later chapter.
What? French people will give a wrong answer? Only if
they don't know the right one. They are not trying to trick you,
but they would rather offer a guess than nothing at all. That
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