This confection of a map appears on SNCF’s website for their low-cost, no-frills, everything-costs-extra TGV service, Ouigo (a name that makes a pun in both English and French — “we go” in the former and “yes, go” in the latter).

The map is certainly bright and cheerful, and very definitely on brand for the service. It uses the bright magenta and sky blue colours from the train livery liberally and presents all of France as a theme park (complete with “roller coaster” track!) called “Ouigoland” — tying in perfectly with the service’s tagline of “Let’s play!”

The major destinations get little illustrative icons to depict the region, ranging from a lovely little Hotel Negresco in Nice to a paper cone of anthropomorphic frites (!) in Lille. The elephant for Nantes confused me at first, but there is actually an enormous mechanical pachyderm —  Le Grand Élephant — in that city. You can take rides in it! The starfish sunning itself on a towel is probably my favourite.

While I love the style of the map, it’s really just used to highlight potential destinations, rather than giving any indication of the actual network. This is probably intentional, as the cut-price nature of Ouigo echoes that of no-frills airlines: the destination is the thing, not the journey or route taken to get there. You’re really meant to go to the Ouigo website, enter your starting and ending locations and see how cheap the fares are, basically.

Our final word: Adorable and well-executed, if not actually useful to gain a full understanding of the ins-and-outs of the rapidly expanding Ouigo network. Hmmm, maybe a project for the future? Three stars.

Source: Ouigo.com