The road signs that teach travellers about France(www.bbc.com)
70 pointsby 16594470919 hours ago14 comments
  • arjie2 hours ago
    Driving around America, you'll see they have these brown background signs telling you about museums and parks and stuff like that. We often stop by these to just take a look and it blows my mind how rich this country is that some random little lake somewhere will have a full blown parking lot and restroom and will look spick and span. There'll be a couple of those standard-issue picnic tables and standard-issue signboards describing the place.

    I really love these random stops.

  • numlock86an hour ago
    As a European I don't know a single country I have visited that doesn't have these kind of signs.
  • bbx6 hours ago
    These road signs are iconic. They’re noticeable but not distracting. They inform without imposing themselves. There’s something very soothing about them.

    If you’ve ever taken the A10 motorway France between Bordeaux and Paris, it’s about a 500 km stretch that is fairly straight and, thus, a bit boring. But seeing these golden signs along the road was always a small event for me as a kid. They act as sporadic milestones: every time you see one, you know you’ve made progress and entered a new region.

  • robrain3 hours ago
    We love these signs when we're touring. In our motorhome we're normally going slow enough that we can just turn off the autoroute or else log interesting sites for a future trip.

    I'm British-Canadian so the European roads hold no fear for me. I'd say to any worried North Americans (roundabouts, kms, aires), just do it some time - France in particular is a chilled place to drive motorhomes (RVs if you must) and I've never had any grief. We avoid Paris and other dense urban areas, but the beautiful countryside and easy autoroutes make for an excellent tour. We're off to Norway next month and I hope the signage is as interesting.

  • poisonborz3 hours ago
    This is not a specifically french sight, similar signs are common across whole Europe.
  • amatecha4 hours ago
    These are awesome, but the downside is when you already have your day(s) planned out and didn't know about the super-appealing landmark or attraction they depict! Still, they do help set the tone that you are traveling through places with tons of history and awesome cultural destinations worth checking out.
  • YZF3 hours ago
    They need to teach how to use their crazy roundabouts...

    EDIT: https://youtube.com/shorts/Fs8h9SRqJ5I?si=eZNm9p5HirXkknmU

    • marci3 hours ago
      That's just a regular rounndabout.

      I thought you were talking about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OGvj7GZSIo

      • YZF3 hours ago
        Heh. Let's do a quick survey though. In France who has the right of way? The car that is already in the roundabout or the car entering the roundabout?
        • athrun2 hours ago
          In France, in absence of contrary indications (ie: absence of signs, traffic signals, or line markings), it's "Priority to the Right".

          So if it's an actual roundabout (aka, "rond-point"), then normal traffic rules apply for intersections: Priority to the Right. Vehicles already on the roundabout must yield to cars entering it.

          Often, you have what is referred as "Carrefours à sens giratoire", which can very much look like "rond-points", but priority is to the vehicles already on the roundabout. For this reason, there will be a yield sign at the entrance of the roundabout to make it clear there's a special rule that applies to it. Sometimes you have traffic lights as well.

          • YZF2 hours ago
            Most of the world doesn't have 6x6 lane uncontrolled intersections where people need to yield to the right. In fact your average 2 lane intersection with traffic lights, here in North America, once those traffic lights don't work for some reason it becomes almost impossible to navigate the intersection despite the "priority rules" being more or less known. It just becomes total chaos because there is usually enough traffic to just keep one direction going forever given that everyone slows down.

            Even with one lane intersections North America usually uses "all stop" if there's any amount of traffic to regulate the flow.

            I just hate multi-lane roundabouts in general but the French ones I dislike even more. There's a lot more that you need to keep track of, the traffic in the roundabout and the traffic that wants to enter.

  • razorbeamz5 hours ago
    Japan has similar signs for cities along the highway.
  • gerdesj5 hours ago
    I remember being a passenger in an Audi 80 Avant with windsurf boards n that on the roof, traveling from the ruhr in northern Germany to southern Spain, in around 1985. We went via la rue du soleil or a sodding great motorway through France - north to south.

    We had to slow down to 80mph in France.

  • angry_octet6 hours ago
    Never able to pay attention to them as I'm hyper alert to « CÉDEZ LE PASSAGE » signs, or the absence of one telling me I don't have to give way, which means I don't have priority, and some random local could barrel out at 90km/h.
    • amatecha4 hours ago
      Interesting, I've driven in 15 different European countries and found France to be one of the easiest and most chill. I mean, on the highways and city streets, anyways -- not so much on the farmland single-lane roads that shockingly have a speed limit of 90km/h lol ... but regardless, the "people merging in from the right have the right-of-way" actually makes sense to me since they're engaging in the most "high-pressure" action, while those of us strolling along on the highway can just adjust our speed to give them space, or change lanes ahead of time as needed.
      • lefra35 minutes ago
        People merging have right of way only on the parisian périphérique. On all other motorways in France, the merging cars must yield.

        It is common courtesy to move over or match speed so they can merge more easily, but that's not the law.

      • mgaunard3 hours ago
        Reduced to 80km/h since 2018.
        • amatecha2 hours ago
          Oh right, I totally forgot! I mean, even then, for so many of those roads I'd never consider driving that fast haha
      • rkomorn4 hours ago
        I don't think they're talking about merging on a highway?

        Sounds like they're talking about the fact that at an intersection, unless signaled otherwise, the people coming from the right have right of way.

        • amatecha4 hours ago
          Well, the signs described in the article are only used on the highways, so if they were talking about non-highway driving I guess they may have missed that detail heh
    • ninja39255 hours ago
      These signs are mostly on the highway
  • EdNutting7 hours ago
    The “Grapes in a Cognac glass” image looks like an electric car charger symbol lol
  • d--b3 hours ago
    Oh I didn’t realize these only existed in France!

    These are cool indeed.

    I think their placement is weird though. They really don’t tell you how to get there. Sometimes they are very far from the thing they advertise. And you really shouldn’t go off the motorway when you see the sign. It could be quite confusing when you actually are planning to go to that place.

    Also a bunch of places that are shown in the sign are privately owned like zoos and recreation parks. These tend to be iconic ones but it still feels a little off.

  • suoer6 hours ago
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  • aaron6953 hours ago
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