Map of Tendre

'The way through this pastoral country of the affections begins at Nouvelle Amitié and leads (ignoring dead-ends such as the Lake of Indifference) by three alternative routes to either Tendre-sur-Reconnaissance, Tendre-sur-Inclination, or Tendre-sur-Estime.

One leads through the villages of "Billet Doux" (Love Letter"), "Petits Soins" (Little Trinkets) and so forth and ends at "Tendre-sur-Estime", the suitor having successfully convinced the lady of his worth.

The other route leads to "Tendre-sur-Reconnaissance", the names of the villages showing how patience, faithfulness, and constant attention will eventually soften a lady's heart.

[2] 'The enormously popular and much imitated Carte de Tendre...became a symbol for the politically and culturally independent, aristocratic salonnières '.

[3] From a later, feminist perspective, 'in this geography of sentiment the personal is indeed political...placing the female prerogative at the center of civilization'[4] by privileging 'the private amorous contract contingent on woman's inclination'.

The Carte de Tendre or Carte du Pays de Tendre
The Carte de Tendre (Map of Tender) was "conceived as a social game during the Winter of 1653-1654" by Madeleine de Scudéry, and a printed copy was "later incorporated into the first volume of her coded novel, Clélie ." (Reitinger 1999, 109).