Surfergirl

My French finally failed me -- I called up the Palais de Congres to order some concert tickets for a concert this summer, and I actually spoke more French than the guy I spoke with did English; discovered that I could neither have the tickets sent to the hotel we'll be staying at nor sent to the U.S., so my follow-up question was could I order them and pick them up at Will Call.

The problem was, I didn't know how to say "Will Call" in French, and he didn't understand what that was in English. I managed to get through it by asking in French if they would keep the tickets at the box office and I could come and pick them up when I arrived in Paris, and he said yes. But it got me to wondering, rather than go through a whole long, elaborate production describing what "Will Call" is, is there a term the French use for this? I know someone on this board will know!

sheila

Hell, _I_ don't know what Will call is in English. Clarify, please?

adrienne

Maybe this is an American term. It means the window at the box office (theater or otherwise) where you pick up prepaid tickets. For instance, in my London trip report I referenced picking up Buckingham Palace tickets at the Will Call Window meaning I'd booked and paid for the tickets in advance and they were waiting for me to pick them up at the box office.

This is a term that's seldom used now since tickets can be ordered and paid for through the internet or telephone and delivered to your home or hotel. I don't think there's a separate box office window any longer for picking up tickets that's called "Will Call." And I'm sure many younger people don't even know what this expression means (sorry - I'm not referencing your age surfergirl!)

flanneruk

You don't have to be old or French never to have heard of this expression (for which the English is something like "tickets for collection&quot

Buck House usage is no clue to real English. Diana Moseley, fellow Eurotrash exile in Paris with the (fortunately) ex-king Edward 8 says he told her he'd (and therefore presumably his brother, the queen's dad) been brought up speaking German as his first language.

As a general rule, never follow the House of Windsor in anything.

stardust

Never heard of the term 'will call' either. Anyway, don't know a proper French expression for it either, just a normal phrase explaining you'll book and pay in advance and pick the tickets up at the booth will probably work the best

PLMN

Hi,

I thought it would be fun to try the word lingo translation site for this.

I don't know if this would work, after all I only used the machine translation service. What do you think?

By the way, having grown up in a city with a major theatre district I always have known what "Will Call" is.


I would like to pick up the tickets at the "will call" window please.


Je voudrais prendre les billets au "appellerai" la fenêtre svp.

nytraveler

Can't speak to the French version but "Will Call" is standard language for any theater box office - and some of the major ones did - I don;t think any longer - actually have separate box offices for "Will Call" - often with that label on it..

Christina

You shouldn't have any problem just saying you will pick them up at the "guichet" or ticket office at the venue, in French. That would be most clear although you could probably say "je voudrais retirer les billets au contrôle"

Nikki

The British Ticketmaster web site refers to picking up tickets at the box office as "Box Office Collection".

The French site for the Paris Opera refers to tickets to be picked up at the box office as "les billets a retirer au controle".

justretired

I've heard the term "will-call", and it's in my English dictionary with a hyphen. When you got your idea across, notice that the ticket agent at the Palais de Congrès didn't say, "Aha - you mean ...". That is, having understood the concept, he didn't come up with a short French term. So I suspect there is no exact equivalent, and Christina's suggestion of "retirer les billet au contrôle" is the best you can do.

It's an interesting term, since some have suggested it's purely American, but the use of the word "call" meaning to physically come by is strictly British (in the US, "call" means to telephone). I recall a British secretary, transplanted to the US, being overwhelmed by all the people who said on the telephone, "I'll call on Monday" (or whatever day), and she envisioned all these people streaming into the office.

The most amusing suggestion was PLMN's, to use the Word Lingo site to try to translate the term. There's absolutely NO CHANCE of a computer translator getting something like this right (at least given the current state of the art). I can't even find it in two very large French-English translation dictionaries. And of course, it got translated as simply the future tense of "to call".

- Larry

StCirq

"appelerai" is simply "I'll call" or the first person future of the verb "appeler" - to call. No language software can translate something like "Will Call" in this instance.

Since I've never seen the equivalent of a Will Call window in France, I would simply have asked something like "Est-ce que vous pourriez garder les billets aux guichet?" or "Est-ce que je pourrais retirer les billets au guichet?"

Surfergirl

I used the je voudrais retirer les billets au controle and that worked like a charm.

I still see the box office windows marked "will call" in Los Angeles; some rock concert tickets mandate you pick them up there and won't send them to you, so I'm a little surprised that some people find the term archaic!

Actually, I'm finding the answers here and the history behind the term much more interesting than my question!

jet29

Two words can be used in french to identify the place where you can pick up your tickets:

"Le guichet" or "le guichet des billets" and "la billetterie"

Have a nice concert