The cyclist pauses amid fields of produce that stretch toward the horizon, punctuated only by farms and roads. He stares in bafflement at a road map far too elaborate for its featureless surroundings. This rather nice picture reminds me of that line in the Madonna song Like A Virgin: Didn’t know how lost I was until I found you.
The picture was taken here from this website, detailing the bike-trips of Bob Lucky in his native US and across the pond in Europe. This particular photo was taken while en route to the Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy (France).
“We took an arbitrary direction, and for the first and only time on our trip, we encountered a road map on a sign – right there in the middle of nowhere”, writes Mr Lucky. “Len stared at the map for a while and shrugged his shoulders. I took my turn trying to decipher it, and soon gave up. We had no idea where we were supposed to go to get to Mont-St-Michel. Once again we took an arbitrary direction.”
A perfect illustration, I think, of what I would like to call the Madonna Map Syndrome, in reference to the aforementioned song quote: the map is too complicated to ‘click’ with the map-reader, who is left feeling even more lost than before he consulted it. Fortunately for Mr Lucky, his name proved ominous:
“After the next turn, we got our first view of the abbey off in the distance. It was an exhilarating sight, and one that would be with us for the next day of traveling.”
Would Mont-Saint-Michel not be on the road at some unspecified distance behind the picture-taker? That’s how I read that map.
Comment by David — July 11, 2007 @ 4:22 pm
We have a lot of these map in France. And it’s easy to understand them when you live here. This map show all the little roads between the villages. ^^
Comment by painteau — July 11, 2007 @ 4:31 pm
yeah, that seems pretty easy to read to me…maybe he was running out of juice from riding in the hot sun.
on the topic of map syndromes, can you think of any that would fit a ziggy syndrome? something that says “YOU ARE HERE” and points out the reader’s existential situation?
Comment by jmb — July 11, 2007 @ 4:32 pm
It isn’t just the French…take a look at the picture that goes with this blog entry http://cornwall.backtalk.com/articles/some-things-right-and-wrong-with-italy/
Cheers,
– Franjk
Comment by Frank Leahy — July 11, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
There’s a number of maps like this in the Peloponesse, but their utility is significantly reduced by the fact that they are in general covered with graffiti.
Comment by Sara Uckelman — July 11, 2007 @ 5:04 pm
I’m with David. Seems pretty straightforward.
Comment by Kim Hartveld — July 11, 2007 @ 5:14 pm
Somewhere off the D797. Nothing much there except St Malo, Mont St Michel and Pontorson.
If you lived there would you need a map? If you didnt, the 3 destinations should get you out. Meh
Comment by lord hutton — July 11, 2007 @ 10:35 pm
Foo Foo
Comment by Terk — July 11, 2007 @ 10:53 pm
And of course the other line in the song that my wife thought for years was “level crossing” (which could be on the map) but was in fact “let the choir sing”.
Comment by Mike Woodhouse — July 11, 2007 @ 11:14 pm
[...] 145 – The Madonna Map Syndrome [image] The cyclist pauses amid fields of produce that stretch toward the horizon, punctuated only by farms and roads. […] [...]
Pingback by Top Posts « WordPress.com — July 11, 2007 @ 11:59 pm
Seems pretty straightforward to me?
In France, a lot of houses have no street numbers, just names. There’s even a lot of streets without names. Or rather networks of streets that share a name. So when you get to a village, you look for a map like this, and look for the name of the farm you’re going. Easy. Would be a lot harder without these things, actually :)
I’m Dutch btw.
Comment by lijn — July 12, 2007 @ 1:22 am
[...] (HT: Strange Maps) [...]
Pingback by Confused?? « shawblog — July 12, 2007 @ 10:55 am
In my province, there is a bicycle network system (fietsroutenetwerk) in place that has since been copied by many others, because it is so easy to use. It’s basicly a question of connecting the dots.
You plan your trip using a map like this one:
http://www.limburg.be/toerismelimburg/pers/Fietskaarten/pages/01%20Overzichtskaart%20fietsroutenetwerk%20Limburg_jpg.htm
You then write down all the numbers you need to cross to get to your destination. With these numbers, you can leave your map behind and go cycling. You simply follow the same numbers on signs like the one below to navigate from one number to the next:
http://www.schrijversoppad.nl/schrijversoppad/images/content/Foto_fietsroutenetwerk.jpg
So if I wanted to cycle from my place to where my parents live, I would just jot down 142, 100, 102, 105, 84 and 85.
Even if you can’t read a map, these numbers will get you to where you want to go.
Comment by Patrik — July 12, 2007 @ 3:37 pm
love the blog. great stuff… as far as im concerned. added a link to my blog if you don’t mind (pklife.wordpress.com)
-pk
Comment by pkay — July 12, 2007 @ 8:46 pm
I thought this map was actually really hard to interpret:
1. If you are at the red dot, as everyone seems to be assuming, there should be a cross street — but there doesn’t seem to be one in the photo.
2. The sign is clearly facing in one direction — that is, visible to people coming *from* Mont St Michel. But from the description, the bikers clearly didn’t see Mont St Michel when they came down the road and ran into this sign.
Comment by JK — July 13, 2007 @ 2:09 am
@Patrik
That’s fine if you want to go from Hasselt to Bilzen. But what if you want to visit Voeren without crossing enemy territory?
Ah, just kidding. Looks like a fine system.
Comment by Kim Hartveld — July 13, 2007 @ 4:33 pm
Unbeliveable !
Zed
-
http://www.music-city.org
Comment by music — October 27, 2007 @ 1:54 pm
thank you
Comment by Tony — May 4, 2009 @ 2:52 am
thanks for this map..
good
luck
Comment by Solomon — May 11, 2009 @ 7:42 am
merci
Comment by aspicco . — May 17, 2009 @ 5:27 am
Vielen Dank
Comment by moon — July 3, 2009 @ 4:36 am
Muchas gracias
Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 7:07 am