04.03.09
A French Taxi
A taxi ride in Paris can be an adventure, especially if your pronunciation is not 100% (sometimes even if it is 100%). I am the first to admit that my pronunciation is often less than perfect. But there are a few words that seem to elude me no matter how much practice I give them. The number- one offender is: T-R-O-C-A-D-E-R-O. (This area is the best spot for taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower, and is one I often like to visit. You may read my previous blog on Trocadéro for more details: http://blog.parisambiance.com) Unfortunately, the frequency of my taxi rides to Trocadéro has not increased my success ratio for communicating the name to the driver.
However, pronunciation is not always the issue with taxi confusion. For example, recently my husband and I jumped into a taxi en route to a friend’s home for dinner. My husband boldly stated the name of the street. The driver replied: “You have a terrible French accent.” Now, I took a little offense to this comment since I had taught him myself! As things were to turn out, the driver had actually never heard of the street, and it was his confusion not ours. (Yes!)
The advice I can offer for taxi rides is to write the address of your destination on a piece of paper. Though I can usually give the driver perfect directions, writing the name down is always the easiest. Most of the drivers prefer just to enter it into their GPS. After all, have you ever met a man who would prefer directions from a MRS. over a GPS?