Everybody ends up in the same place!

On our recent trip over to Maine-et-Loire we noticed this sign in the town of Yzernay. Could be considered a directional sign like 'Toutes-directions' (all directions) or 'Autres-directions' (other directions) but it is actually the name of a place! Or is implying everybody eventually heads for the cemetery?

Which way now?...and my love of French signage.

Left or right for trucks...cars are spoilt for choice! 

Pedantic...non

Visiting Colin & Elizabeth over in Braye-sous-Faye  I took this pic.on a drive-by as a passenger in friend Mike's car. It was just outside the village...for goodness sake who cares about 100 metres !!!

It's odd but as soon as I notice things like this they are suddenly everywhere...sure we saw one the other day saying 0.9, which really meant 'your here' as you could see the village 100 metres down the road. 

Not so here, just outside Betz-le-Chateaux  but the absurdity of it all becomes apparent when just a little further along the road on the way into the village you realise you have actually been going backwards!!!

On the right lines?...

 Noticed recently that the white centre lines had been repainted between Barrou and Le Grand Pressigny.

It varies very little en route with the broken line only sometimes getting a little shorter.Now, in the UK  this would mean overtaking can be don from either side but don't think that  it can be the same here...

as they continue around the blind bend down into Le grand Pressigny - are they only there to divide the road?

The work was obviously carried out by the region as they stop and start exactly at the respective village signposts.

No more poo-pooing French signage

Well that's clear enough

Square roundabouts...

Have you noticed the latest inovations in Sainte-Maure de Touraine -square mini roundabouts!!                    I swear!they're there... all the way up the main street.

You are asked to give way at every one of them - sometimes to nothing coming from the right as there is not a road - all very bizarre!

Even the main roundabout  at the edge of town is, with its four sides, is almost square!

Do not be mislead...

Travelling back down from Tours airport my curiosity got the better of me just outside Ligueil on the D 50. If you use this road you will know there is a new roundabout just before heading down Route de Tours into the village. This is to facilitate the as yet to be started, bypass to Loches to the left.

To the right the road is finished and takes some pressure of the village centre by taking away traffic heading for Descartes...

...but it also indicates that it is also the new route to Le Grand Pressingy and Preuilly sur Claise avoiding Ligueil - which can only be good as it not always the easiest place to drive through. So of I headed in the allotted direction in anticipation, trying to second guess where it might eventually lead me. Where it lead me to was a new roundabout on the D59 with no indication as to what direction Le Grand Pressigny was in. Now I knew it was to the left and I also knew that I was driving back into the village! In fairness I did miss out the tight main street but probably covered twice the distance I should have - how disappointing! I think it would be a good idea to force HGVs this way to take them away from the centre but I will be continuing to use the dierect route in future.

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More French road signs...

Spoilt for choice -  here's what you need for this trip, a push-me-pull-me!

French road signs cont,,,

Junction on way back from Sempes brocante - which way now?

Zeal of Zebras...

Recently I have noticed that France seems to have a fresh zeal for pedestrian crossings in their towns and villages.As I drove through the villages along the D50 on my return from Tours recently I could not help but be drawn to the fact that the number of crossings seemed inappropriate to the potential demand for them. I saw no-one using any of them, indeed I only saw one person crossing the road between Tours and Ligueil and he did not use the nearby crossing.  The ones in Liguueil were the only ones I saw used. I shouldn't have been surprised as we all know its rare to see anyone on the streets in many of the villages anyway. Almost all our guests at our houses ask us "Where are all the people?" we explain it away with by fact that most of these rural villages have an elderly population who tend to stay indoors for most of the time. Either that or the Martians have 'beamed' them all up!

Sadly my thinking along these lines (black and white) got me noticing them more and more - did you know for example that between the town centre and out of town shopping at Yzeures-sur-Creuse here in the Loire Valley there are 9, yes 9, crossings - on a one kilometre stretch of road - why?

Footnote:

Here is a photograph from wikipedia of probably the most famous zebra crossing in the world - I, like many others  have taken time out during a London visit to walk across it.

French road signs 4

Commenting recently on French signage or indeed the lack of it meant when we came to this junction on the D2/D5 Angle sur l'Anglin /St.Savin road we were really surprised.

It had a total of 17 directional signs !! is it a departmental thing?

This was in Vienne - maybe they have a bigger budget.

French road signs 3 - where to now?

Haven't the foggiest!

On my way over to take some updated photographs for 'La Folie' ( I designed the website) last Friday I had to pass through Betz le Chateau (there are still some bananas about) then take the road marked for Ligueil. That brings you to this junction on the D58 - now I know I need to go left but strangers arriving for the first time,  if they turn around at the junction, get to know where they have come from and where turning right would take them - so by deduction it must be left  - is that how it works? or do we need to have a map or sat -nav - no fun in that!

Here's the misterious looking chateau of Betz le Chateau.

French signs 2

I just love French signage, my first post on the subject was to be as informative as they sometimes can be (Jean of A very Grand Pressigny  has stolen my thunder-she's very clever that lady) My first example (there will be more) is at a junction on a country road near Martizay,if my memory serves me well. It tells you where you have come from, if you turn your head around at the junction - and also lets you know where turning left will take you but as for turning right well you will just have to guess! I turned right in the certain knowledge that I knew where I'd come from and knew I didn't want to go left - easy really.