They populate the edges of the motorway to indicate regional curiosities: road signs of cultural and tourist interest, or brown signs, often old, are in full renewal.
The aesthetics are redesigned, the terms modernized to highlight the local heritage.
Report in Côte-d'Or.
We meet them on the highways of our holidays: these brown signs that indicate regional curiosities, whether heritage or gastronomic.
Often old, they are in full renewal on some of the French roads.
Born under Georges Pompidou, these signs were originally created to prevent the driver from drowsiness, while providing information on the regions crossed.
The function remains the same, but too dated themes have disappeared in favor of more current references.
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"In the department of Côte-d'Or, there is now a sign on the 'climate of Burgundy'. A notion at the crossroads of geography and social representation, it's quite new", explains for example Nicolas Rating of the APRR motorway network, surveyed by Europe 1. On this network, 600 signs are being renewed, redesigned by famous illustrators.
"The catch is always very visual. When you go to 130 kilometers an hour, you have three seconds of attention: you have to find a drawing that is understood very quickly", assures Nicolas Cote.
An impact on tourism
Aesthetic, these signs also have an impact on tourist attendance, confirms Catherine Troubat, who fought to have, on the A6 motorway, a sign mentioning the existence of anise candies from Flavigny in Côte-d ' Gold.
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“Being on these signs means 'you can go, you won't be disappointed,' she explains.
Multiplying the requests, she ended up convincing those in charge to have her sign.
Since then, she meets tourists who, seduced by the visual, have made a detour to pass by the ancestral candy factory, located in an abbey.
In 10 years, it has tripled its attendance.