向き

[katafei]

I was just consulting Jgram for examples on 向き and stumbled upon this mind-boggling sentence:

France向けの一番太いパイプ
The fattest pipe to France

???

[richvh]

I think you should read that as the "thickest" or "widest" pipe.

[becki_kanou]

I think you should read that as the "thickest" or "widest" pipe.

"The thickest pipe to France" doesn't make a whole lot of sense either.

[richvh]

I was thinking it was referring to the Chunnel. Of course, it still would make a whole lot of sense, as there aren't any other pipes to compare it to going from England to France (unless there are some oil or gas pipelines that cross the Channel, but would you really compare a rail tunnel to an oil or gas pipeline?) The other possibility is that it is referring to an oil or gas pipeline. I have no idea where the contributor dug up that sentence, as it shows up nowhere else on the web. (There are other examples of 一番太いパイプ, for instance talking about tripods: 三脚の三本アシのうちの一本の、一番太い パイプのナットの上を左手で握ります。

[vkladchik]

I think you should read that as the "thickest" or "widest" pipe.

"The thickest pipe to France" doesn't make a whole lot of sense either.

太い means "large in diameter." In English, if you're talking about pipelines, you talk about the diameter. See here for examples.

As for the original sentence, Japanese sometimes use パイプ or パイプライン in the metaphorical of sense of connections, so フランス向けの一番太いパイプ could be a man in a company who has the most/closest connections in France/French industry.

[coco]

The example sentence is vague.

フランス向けのパイプ is "Pipes/piping that will be shipped to France".
フランス向きのパイプ is "Pipes/piping preferred for French market".

So I guess "France 向けの一番太いパイプ" may be:
The widest pipes/piping among all pipes/piping that we(they)'ll export to France.

(Hope my poor English makes sense.)

Group 7
１０７．～向きだ、向きに、向きの
１０８．～向けだ、向けに、向けの

[chikara]

I was thinking it was referring to the Chunnel. ....

Me too

In English (well in this country at least) we use the term "conduit" in the metaphorical sense of "connection" or "pathway". For example;

"He will act as the conduit between the finance committee and the board."

A "conduit" is simply a "pipe" so I would take it in the sense that vkladchik-san has suggested.

[coco]

A "conduit" is simply a "pipe" so I would take it in the sense that vkladchik-san has suggested.

If so, we rather say フランス（企業）との一番太いパイプ．

[chikara]

ココさんどうも

[coco]

Seemingly those examples are "向き" usages except for the last example.
http://dev.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=muki

[vkladchik]

A "conduit" is simply a "pipe" so I would take it in the sense that vkladchik-san has suggested.

If so, we rather say フランス（企業）との一番太いパイプ．

That's true. I can think of a context in which 向け could be used, ie, where the context is known and everything is pared down, eg, かれはフランスの消費者市場進出に向けて組んだチームの中で一番太いパイプだ, but there's no way anyone would use that as an example sentence, if that's what the meaning was.