Borders and Signs

I have said earlier that a real border is something I have never seen in my life living in an island country but I had seen and crossing ones a lot during my stay in France. I used to drive through Mont Blanc tunnel to visit customers in Italy. When I drove near the tunnel du Mont Blanc, one interesting thing was the road sign of Mont blanc suddenly became Monte Bianco and Turin became Torino and I was still on the French side, not entering Italy yet...


Road signs were big challenges to me when I started to drive in France (in fact, I started to drive cars only when I started my work in France and I was offered a British car!). For example, this one above says "All Diretion". If you are first time in France, you probably won't have a clue what exactly does this mean. I would say this sign is a kind reminder telling that if you got lost, don't worry, move a ahead and there will be other signs telling you where to go and those will include all directions...


There is an American joke saying "Ausfahrt is probably the largest city in Germany as on the motorway, you can drive for a very long time but still can exit the motorway into Ausfahrt...". Actually "Ausfahrt" means exit for the motorway in German and the same joke can apply to "Sortie" in French. Somehow it becomes even more interesting when driving in Swiss. Once I drove through Geneva to Bern to apply for Hungarian Visa and I found that when I drove near Bern, the exit sign changed from "Sortie" to "Ausfahrt". This should be saying you are leaving French speaking region and entering German one