North-East of France. Part I

June 19...26, 2015

Driving around France is pure pleasure. The only snag is that the French don’t give a damn about U-turns on the highway. If you end up making a wrong turn (prompted by the incomprehensible signage), then the closest U-turn will be about 50 kilometres away. They’re much more humane in neighbouring countries — there they have U-turns every few kilometres.

Amiens

France may just be the most well-kempt country in the world. Even the roadside grass grows beautifully here.

Even the town’s outskirts are easy on the eye.

Even eight-storey buildings look cosy.

Cathedral of greater importance.

Cathedral of lesser importance.

Not so refined shop window.

Parking meter.

Old street.

New street.

There’s also a nice canal here.

Then, out of the blue, an almost-American retro-skyscraper.

Lille

It’s a medium-sized town.

With leafy streets.

And not so leafy ones too.

With a beautiful little square dating back to the Middle Ages.

With the most sumptuous shop window.

And power lines that are still attached to a wall-mounted support frame (like in Kaluga).

Douai

A town with one cathedral.

And nine loudspeakers.

Reims

The main view of the city.

Remarkably preserved „Kodak“ sign that is probably close to one hundred years old.

Street name sign.

Parking meter.

Rubbish bin.

Underground rubbish storage.

The clever relief of this electrical cabinet stops people sticking posters on it.

They really knocked themselves out here. Tree grille with unique Reims motif.

Drainage channel grille executed in the same style.

You often see thinly perforated shutters around town.

Many streets are for trams and pedestrians only. No cars, no curbs.

Speaking of which, here’s a tram.

Turns out that it’s not just in places like Russia that they can take a perfectly fine fountain and put a hideous fence around it.

Metz

A lovely city.

With an exceedingly beautiful signage system: all the letters and arrows are suspended in the air.

There’s also regular ground-based signage with neat little brass triangles in the pavement.

Very beautiful tree grille.

Rubbish bin that matches the tree grille.

A rubbish bin that doesn’t match — it’s just beautiful.

Fire hydrants.

Wheel stops.

Renamed street.

The people of Metz love to put all kinds of cuteness in their ground floor windows.

Unexpected concern for those living on the second floor — the part of the street light that shines into people’s windows is covered by a special screen so as not to irritate the residents.

How one shopfront can embellish an entire street.

And for dessert, a few bonkers bay windows.