Town and village signs.
- Thread starter weltweit
- Start date
Before you mock weltweit too much, there is something different about the way one navigates in France. It's all about place names, not road numbers.
The road numbering there is administrative and inconsistent. However the routing signs within a settlement always have the next major settlements. With a sprinkling of 'Autres Directions' where a given exit will get you everywhere apart from the places named on the signs. It works surprisingly well. Visiting a friend recently, I asked directions from Paris.
Quite simply, he wrote: Chartres--Le Mans--Rennes--Baud.
And that was all I needed for a 300 mile journey cross country. In the UK we'd give road numbers (intermingled with place names, where pertinent).
So place name signs are navigational not decorative. There's no twee fonts of random sizes, commercial sponsor names or other guff. They are in the same fonts and sizes as other navigational signs. Having an 'exit' sign becomes part of that navigation.
I didn't realise any of this until I had to drive there a few months ago - it really is different.
So yeah, Weltweit, I know where you're coming from with this.
The road numbering there is administrative and inconsistent. However the routing signs within a settlement always have the next major settlements. With a sprinkling of 'Autres Directions' where a given exit will get you everywhere apart from the places named on the signs. It works surprisingly well. Visiting a friend recently, I asked directions from Paris.
Quite simply, he wrote: Chartres--Le Mans--Rennes--Baud.
And that was all I needed for a 300 mile journey cross country. In the UK we'd give road numbers (intermingled with place names, where pertinent).
So place name signs are navigational not decorative. There's no twee fonts of random sizes, commercial sponsor names or other guff. They are in the same fonts and sizes as other navigational signs. Having an 'exit' sign becomes part of that navigation.
I didn't realise any of this until I had to drive there a few months ago - it really is different.
So yeah, Weltweit, I know where you're coming from with this.
weltweit
Well-Known Member
However on leaving North France and heading into the low countries, I always get confused on approaching Gent which suddenly becomes Ghand on signs when the language changes and always puts me off my stride, I never actually want to go there because as you mention paolo I am only using it navigationally before I fork off somewhere else. On one disasterous occasion I actually found myself in Gent without at all intending to go there!
trashpony
Hag
I lived in Belgium when I was a kid. For many years, I thought there were directions to somewhere which never materialised called Notre Dame aux Bois. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I realised it and Jezus Eik were actually the same place
Dogsauce
I’ve got Skol but I’m not a Scholar
London in particular is baffling if you're not familiar with all the districts and their relative positions. I've got lost trying to cycle out of it to Brighton on a couple of occasions, and once trying to get back from Wembley Stadium, because all the signage just points to the next bit of London, not to any towns outside or the centre of the city. In comparison, if I want to get to Manchester from Leeds it's pretty easy.
