This is my kind of web article to stumble across: The road signs that teach travellers about France. I'm glad there are people out there still appreciating little details like this.
In an era where drivers rarely wore seatbelts and often smoked at the wheel, and there were very few radars to prevent speeding, they also encouraged motorists to slow down. Rather than being a distraction, the brown signs served to break autopilot mode and were thought to improve road safety.
The earliest signs were created by Swiss-born designer Jean Widmer, who died last month, and his former wife Nicole Sauvage, a husband-and-wife team whose work also shaped some of the most recognisable visual symbols in modern France, including the Centre Pompidou logo. Their motorway signs were simple and graphic: three planes for Toulouse, a hub of the aerospace industry; chicory, endives and potatoes as a nod to the agriculture of Hauts-de-France; half-timbered houses for Alsace; and grapes in a Cognac glass.
