I saw it yesterday in the exposition in Pouilly about which I was so mistakenly dismissive. It was one of those strip maps which were used by travellers in the 18-19 Centuries to navigate across country. The ones produced specifically for your route and so just showing the places you needed to visit and, if you were lucky, the immediate countryside perhaps 100 yards on either side. Obviously this works well for a canal which itself is just a strip through the countryside.
I would find it a bit disconcerting not to be able to view my route in relation to the surrounding region. I need that additional spatial orientation to feel comfortable. It reminds me of my son - whose name I will not mention to avoid any court cases - and his early approach to navigation. In making one of his first trips alone by train from Cambridge to friends in Guildford, we asked him if he knew where Guildford was. He replied that he didn’t need to. He had a train ticket that said both Cambridge and Guildford and that was all that concerned him. I couldn’t fault the logic. This wasn’t even a two dimensional view on his trip. It was just knowing the end points and trusting to the train company. But it worked. He got there and home again.
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