Tintin Forums

We notice in The Calculus Affair that Hergé in order to magnify the driving prowess (or rashness ??) of the Italian driver , makes him drive a right hand driven Italian car at break neck speed through left hand drive Switzerland. However, I wonder whether Italy was right hand drive at the time of Herge drawing the book or was the car not an Italian one.

I know that Hergé had a thing about correctness and details , but are all the cars and number plates (for real countries such as Scotland and Switzerland which Tintin visited) shown in his books drawn on real models .

No I am sure it is right as far as the side of the road. French and England drive on the opposite side of the car .

No I am sure it is right as far as the side of the road. French and England drive on the opposite side of the car .

I think he's saying that Alfredo appears to be driving a British car, though... i.e. that he's sitting on the right. To be honest, in the only picture I have of him lying around (in Michael Farr's book), he appears to be on the correct side, but it's hard to tell.

Oh I see what you are saying , that is only silly part of the story because the rest is pretty serious so I forgot about it.

Err... by the way, while crossing the lake of Geneva by helicopter from Rolle, the heroes passed a border and got to the French coast, before meeting the Italian Lancia driver!

You could use Google Maps to see Nyon, Rolle and St-Cergue (w/o a final "s"), all located north of the lake, as well as nearby Gland, where Hergé used to retire when he was depressed.

Err... by the way, while crossing the lake of Geneva by helicopter from Rolle, the heroes passed a border and got to the French coast, before meeting the Italian Lancia driver!

Yes, good point yamilah. I had to check my copy of The Calculus Affair and an atlas but you're absolutely right - they fly the helicopter south from Rolle (the Bordurian embassy in Switzerland) and land it 5.2km fom Cervens in France (according to the signpost on page 33 of Affair).

And I believe I've found the answer to the original question. I just found a site (Why do some countries drive on the right and others on the left?) which says:


Case solved ;)

Until the mid-60s, all Lancias, even in left-hand-drive Italy, were manufactured as right-hand-drive.

Bravo !!

Yes that surely solves it.This really goes to prove that Herge and his assistants took a lot of pain in projecting the minutest details in the comic books.

A member under another topic had commented that he had not seen a maroon coloured Taxi in Delhi (as projected in Tibet).I am from Delhi and I can confirm that what the member has said is true to the best of my knowledge.

The Taxis in Delhi are Ambassador (Morris Oxford) make and since the 70s (from the time I recall) have black body with yellow roof.

However, I believe the Tibet predates the 70s, so for all you know Herge had got it right , that the Taxis in Delhi were actually maroon then.I'll need to talk to a lot of oldies to get to know this.

I have never heard of an Indian Airways also.The national carrier doing the foreign routes out of India was Air India.Later the India-Nepal route was/is the domestic carrier ,Indian Airlines.