ABSTRACT

This is not a tourist's guide to Paris! It is an analysis of those institutions and monuments to which reference is constantly made in the press and for which bilingual dictionary translations are not enough. The traditional bilingual dictionary is of necessity concerned with the translation of words and not the translation of the cultural significance behind those words. If students look up the French body La caisse des dépôts et consignations in a bilingual dictionary, they will find the following translation; 'the deposit and consignment office'. This is not a great help in understanding what the CDC really is. It is the aim of this chapter to provide the reader with a more meaningful description of such terms.