RETEX: Encounters Along My Mapping Walks
(translation by ChatGpt)
to be continued, maybe:
- journal entry (upcoming): Existential Questions About My Encounter with Panoramax
- journal entry (upcoming): Existential Questions About OSM and the Wikimedia World
- journal entry (upcoming): My First Experiences With an RTK Rover and an RTK Base
My urban recycling trek is now complete (at least regarding the attempt to map all voluntary drop-off points in the GPS&O intercommunality). I still need to clear up some fixme tags.
This journal entry isn’t about mapping information but simply about a few encounters I had during my walks. They are just brief flashes of emotion, smiles, or frustration.
To understand the atmosphere of these encounters, picture me as:
- 70 years old, usually in shorts (except below 11°C)
- with a backpack (20L)
- always carrying at least one hiking pole in one hand and a camera in the other
- sometimes with a pole sticking out of my backpack holding a GNSS antenna at head height
The Best of the Best: Hunting for AEDs
in a micro-crèche
2025-09-08 in Médan
I’m looking for a micro-daycare facility to verify the presence of an AED (Osmose suggestion). I wander a bit around the assumed location at the end of a residential cul-de-sac and eventually identify the daycare. I hesitate to enter the garden and ring the doorbell when an educator opens a ground-floor window, leans out, and asks whether I’m looking for something and if she can help (a polite way of saying “we’re watching, please move along”).
We exchange a couple of rather friendly minutes during which I silently give up on asking whether I may come in to photograph the AED (didn’t seem very wise). Instead, I hand her my phone and ask if she can photograph the AED on their wall (at least we both know she will avoid putting any children in the frame).
A brief hesitation, a few back-and-forths between me (standing outside the window) and her supervisor… and she brings my phone back, with two photos of the AED and a big smile.
I think I brightened her day — she’s probably still talking about it…
in my train station
2025-09-08 in Villennes-sur-Seine
I’m strolling along the platforms of my town’s train station searching for an outdoor AED that supposedly exists there. I don’t find it (found it fifteen days later on the other side of the station), stop by the exit in front of an outdoor wall sign reading “AED,” and grumble in my nonexistent beard: “What’s the point of putting up an AED sign if the device isn’t visible and accessible nearby? Pffff…”
A small voice behind me, from a 12- or 13-year-old leaning on his scooter:
- sir, do you need a defibrillator?
- Oh no, I just wanted to photograph it, everything is fine, thanks!
- because if you need one, there’s one across the square, on the library wall, on the right
So I met a kid (friendly sense of the word) who knows what a defibrillator is, knows where one is nearby, wonders if an adult next to him might need one, and immediately directs him to the closest!
Bravo, and thank you (to the kid and to his educators, parents and/or teachers).
I wouldn’t have bet a cent on this kind of reaction at that age, and I walked away with a breath of hope about young people’s attention to others.
in a hypermarket
survey 2025-10-02 Buchelay
I’m looking for an indoor AED indicated by Osmose in a hypermarket gallery. Not finding it, I ask a security guard if he knows where it is, making sure to say that there’s no emergency. He knows. Without hesitation, he takes me to it, leaves me in front of it, and returns to his security job (I wouldn’t swear he didn’t keep a cautious eye on what I was doing with “his” AED).
I take photos and notice a blinking orange light (later confirmed at home to be a routine maintenance indicator due within two months). Unsure, I try to find the guard again, but he’s gone, so I alert one of his colleagues. Far less receptive. Polite nod. Promise of action…
I left only moderately confident that anything would be done.
in a church
survey 2025-09-30 Mantes-la-Ville
Osmose indicates an indoor AED in a church. I’m not Catholic, and rather non-practicing in my own religion, but I decide to enter while respecting the customs and expectations of the place.
No AED visibly apparent, and I assume it may be in the back areas inaccessible to regular visitors. I’m about to leave when a man in a chasuble comes out from those back rooms and sits on one of the sparsely filled benches. I gently ask whether I may photograph the AED supposedly in his church. Slightly surprised look, then: “of course, why not?” and he returns to his meditations.
I wait a bit, thinking he might guide me there, but he doesn’t move, and I eventually figure that I should just leave.
At the back of the church, as I prepare to exit, a worshipper seated on a bench who had clearly observed my little dance — without understanding it — smiles and invites me to sit on one of the many empty benches.
I decline and explain my search. Big smile, he stands up and shows me the AED, perfectly visible right next to the entrance. I still don’t know — and probably neither the worshipper nor the man in the chasuble knows — how I managed not to see it.
Photos, big smiles, silent nods of respect, and I left with both photo and geolocation.
But What Are You Doing? — and Various Questions
about my photos of garbage containers
survey 2025-07-04 Carrières-sous-Poissy
I’m photographing a household waste drop-off container.
An older neighborhood resident carrying several bags approaches to dispose of her load. I step aside so she doesn’t think I’m photographing her, then realize she may have trouble pressing the foot pedal used to open the container. So I return and press it for her.
She didn’t seem to expect it. She thanked me quite naturally, then started a small conversation to ask what I was doing (besides pressing pedals). Attempts at explanation. Her biggest confusion: “but who do you work for?”
I definitely need to work on explaining the purpose and value of collaborative work for free and shared knowledge…
about my GNSS antenna
survey RTK 2025-10-10 Villennes
My first mapping session with an RTK rover (quick outing at my town’s sports complex). I cross paths with three sports instructors on break, puzzled by the pole and antenna sticking out of my backpack. It does look a bit Martian (or at least alien — Mars not necessarily involved).
Short chat about OSM, its purpose, its free and collaborative nature. Small detour into RTK and its usefulness (beyond OSM).
I’m not sure my explanations about OSM or RTK left any lasting impression… but I tried. I wonder whether it would be useful to keep a few simple OSM flyers in my pockets for this kind of impromptu street-corner conversation.
And… I just checked the Wiki and found Category:Flyer, where I should be able to find something helpful (haven’t done it yet).
Never underestimate the Wiki :)
Knowing When to Stop
Can I help you?
survey 2025-09-30 Magnanville
The situation: slightly bent, leaning on my hiking pole, looking down at my smartphone to choose my next point to check/create… but standing at the edge of a pedestrian crossing with a red light on a busy avenue where pedestrians are rare.
“Do you need help crossing?” (a woman my age, full of kindness, probably thinking my hiking pole was a white cane).
I declined with many thanks but promised myself not to stop right at the edge of pedestrian crossings anymore (also remembering there are always drivers who stop the instant they see someone near a crosswalk).
Knock Knock Knock
survey 2025-12-08 Villennes-sur-Seine
Stopped on a very narrow, rarely used sidewalk at the end of a bridge over the highway, trying to reposition the GNSS antenna poking out of my backpack behind my neck.
Soft taps on my backpack, without a word: a woman I was blocking who hadn’t dared call out (maybe the antenna was intimidating :) ).
and others…
Little Free Libraries
During my outings, I map the little free libraries I encounter. With photos on Panoramax (and sometimes on Wikimedia Commons).
I was pleasantly surprised (2025-10-03) to receive a thank-you message from someone who built a website dedicated to little free libraries sourced from OpenStreetMap (with proper credits). His site can be seen as a thematic rendering application for OSM data. He promotes the idea that OSM data is free, ideally long-lasting, and updated through field surveys.
Nice…
a driver–cleaning-agent altercation
survey 2025-09-11 Mantes
I’m walking on the sidewalk, looking for my next container to map. On the opposite side of the street, a verbal altercation between an irritable driver and a street-cleaning worker. From what I can gather, the driver seemed annoyed by the worker’s presence and activity (safety vest, broom…).
There was no physical violence, but I’m not particularly brave. I simply stopped, planted firmly on my two hiking poles, and watched the scene, camera in hand.
The argument slowed down, a glance exchanged between the driver and me (or perhaps my camera)… and the grumbler sped off loudly.
A final glance between the cleaning worker and me, a small smile and nod of solidarity, and we each returned to our tasks.
Sometimes it doesn’t take much…
a street-artist
I also map street-art murals I pass by, especially because the intercommunality sponsors around forty of them, so they’re quite common. I photograph them and upload the photos to Panoramax.
When I tried uploading them to Wikimedia Commons, I realized that the licenses don’t allow it under current French law (we’ll have to wait for the death of the — usually young — artists plus 70 years, by which time the murals (and I) will be gone. These constraints also apply to Panoramax, of course).
Out of curiosity, I emailed one of the mural artists about this issue. His reply (quoted verbatim):
Good evening,
To be honest, I can’t really answer you. My position and my opinion are that once a mural is in the street, it spreads and has “its own life”. The only thing is to credit the artist and maybe date it (year of creation).
That’s it.
In any case, well done for your initiative.
If you have a link, don’t hesitate.
Have a good evening
This doesn’t change the impossibility of publishing the photos (unless one could certify/authenticate this response… which would likely be more trouble for the artist than painting the mural).
There is progress to be made regarding public artworks…
These RETEX (feedback) journal entries reflect my beginner’s choices, hesitations, discoveries, and questions. These texts represent only my experience and are not Wiki entries. Some of these choices have been discussed on the France forum, but not all. I remain open to any comments and have no intention of giving recommendations here.
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