You are learning asking directions in paris: you will read the scene it happens in, learn 10 words and phrases, take apart the pattern behind them (directions), hear them in a conversation, rehearse them, and finish by saying one thing out loud to be graded.
Paris is not a grid. The arrondissements spiral outward from the Île de la Cité. Streets change names every few blocks. Three phrases navigate the entire city.
Le Marais — the 3e and 4e arrondissements — is one of the few areas of Paris where the medieval street plan survived Haussmann's 19th-century renovations. Streets run at angles, dead-end unexpectedly, and change names mid-block. Even Parisians get lost here.
The stranger is looking for a specific falafel place on rue des Rosiers — the street famous for its Jewish bakeries and the best falafel in Paris. He has walked in circles for fifteen minutes.
He stops a woman walking a small dog. «Excusez-moi madame, je suis un peu perdu. Où est la rue des Rosiers, s'il vous plaît ?»
She points. «Tout droit, puis à droite au feu. C'est à deux minutes à pied. Vous cherchez L'As du Fallafel ?»
«Oui, exactement !»
«C'est au coin — vous ne pouvez pas le rater.» You can't miss it.
«Merci beaucoup, vous êtes très aimable !»