Friday, January 29, 2010

Travel Directions . . .

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28 comments:

Dave-CostaRicaDailyPhoto.com said...

It looks like the mother and child on the sign are walking in the wrong direction.

Plum' said...

Owen,
Tu as bien raison, comment faisions-nous avant l'invention du GPS ? Et bien nous utilisions des cartes et notre sens de l'observation ! C'était quand même plus charmant...et pourtant pas si lointain !
Bises,
K'line

Lydia said...

I realize it's an old sign, but what do you think is the cause of the streaks of rust. Are those tiny holes from gunshot?

TGIF and have a good weekend, Owen.

Steve said...

The mother seems to be offloading something dirty on the pavement behind her...!

Batteson.Ind said...

now.. one of them's got to be right!.. :-)

BLOGitse said...

where's the school - left or right...
or
in that building? :)

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy first meets the Scarecrow and asks for directions.
He points in one direction and says, "That way is a very nice way."
Then later crosses his arm over the other and says, "Of course, people do....go both ways!" :)
Have a great weekend.
Jim

Jean said...

Bravo!
J'adore cette photo !

CiCi said...

Conflicting instructions. My favorite kind. Then I have choices!!!

French Fancy... said...

Everyone seems to have mentioned a mother but to me it is rather a sexless figure - there is no dress, it looks like trousers or long boots. But anyway - aren't the French place names beautiful?

Deborah said...

At least it's a bit more specific than ' Toutes Directions .

Plum' said...

Hi Owen,
I'm back just for saying that I love this kind of non-sense...Reminds me the atmosphere of Alice in the wonderland !
Cheers,
K'line

Jo said...

It reminds me of the "push me pull you" in Dr. Dolittle.

You know, "Facebooked" (is that a word) a school friend of mine, and I found out that she has been living Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France. How lucky can anyone be?

Oh, wait... you live in France! You're lucky. :-)

jeff said...

Owen,
je me demande pourquoi cet enfant et sa mère prennent la direction opposée aux panneaux ?... Et, qui a osé tirer sur le dit panneau ?... C'est pas un impact de balle ?...
Ou un trou de mémoire... ce qui peut arriver fréquemment aux élèves distraits qui regardent par la fenêtre les voitures passer en direction de Coucy-le-Château, La ferte-Milon et St pierre-Aigle ! ! !
Mais je vois que tu as une vive addiction pour la rouille ! Un peu comme moi avec mes boîtes rouillées et mon poison pour insectes !...

Au fait Owen ! Ta photo d'affiche a disparu et on y trouve à la place un petit carré blanc avec une croix rouge ! ! !...

Amitiés cher amigo !
Bon et excellent week-end... si tu y est déjà !

@eloh said...

Owen... oh what does it say? What does it say...

I would run away..to the left...if I follow the sign to the couch house... I will get run off by being poked in the back by a man with runny brown stuff coming out of his purse.

Oh, run away, run away!

Linda said...

I'm finally back online and was able to respond to your comments!
I am so taken with your additional stiking portraits of your Haitian friends and hope they have survived.

I could take a guess at what is implicated by the sign and even guess at the directions in French.

Not so in Wales. Why do those folks not use many vowels! No sign can be pronounced, let alone retained long enough for it to register a meaning.

So, I'm thinking that in France, I would have a least a fighting chance of not stepping into traffic while watching for the school crossing children?

Nevine Sultan said...

I need to follow this sign, possibly, and possibly, maybe, I will find a smile or two there. San Antone has been digging me into its trenches, lately, and I'm longing for a new place to be. I think I'm starting to acquire that typically American habit of associating anything with "Le" and "La" in it with an exotic place, and so it is that I long to be in Coucy-Le-Chateau or La Ferte-Milon! I keep thinking to myself, "It's time for us to move... again!" Maybe soon... maybe...

So, you see how my mind works when I see your photos? I dream... hmmmm... my favorite activity. You're such a treasure, Owen. Thanks for just being there, and for always sharing such joy!

Owen said...

Ah Nevine, if your heart is longing for changing of places, of spaces, I hope you can put in motion whatever your heart may be longing for... I love signs like these, and maps, and a good atlas, I can spend hours and hours going over maps... and signs like this one are an invitation to travel... I've wanted to go to Coucy le Chateau for some time now, it's a site that suffered severely in WWI apparently... be well...

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Linda, yeah, Welsh is tough ! I grew up on a street called Bryn Mawr avenue, near a town called Bala Cynwyd... apparently there were Welsh settlers there. Glad you could get back online and out into the wider blogosphere again... where one can follow all sorts of signs to an infinity of destinations...

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@eloh, yeah, watch out for that runny brown stuff ! Your head is right on your shoulders... pragmatic we could say... just don't slip in the puddle if you decide to run for it !
:-)

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Jeff, ce n'est pas qu'elles marchent dans le sens opposé de l'autre panneau, c'est juste qu'elles marchent en arrière... pour éviter de voir les trous... errr, les trous de mémoire on va dire, les trous de balle n'est pas très convenable comme usage il me semble, sauf erreur de mes études argotiques... bref, oui, la rouille, c'est ce que j'aimais ici, la rouille qui tache...

Alors, que veux tu dire à propos de l'affiche ??? Elle est toujours là l'affiche... là, tu m'as semé... mais bon, ce n'est pas grave, c'est vendredi soir ! Une bière s'impose ! Non, une tise ! Je vise une tise ... errr une vision d'une tision, errr, ch'suis perdu... merde !

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Jo, that's excellent that you can find long lost friends and they're in France... that will give you a reason to come over here, and look around a little... you deserve a vacation in France, I'm sure !
:-)

Owen said...

K'line x 2, hmmmm, et si Alice aurait eu un GPS, j'imagine qu'elle aurait découvert toute autre chose après être passée à travers le miroir... oui, franchement, tu as raison, cela fait pas très longtemps que nous avons toutes ces merveilles technologiques, et déjà on se demande comment on faisait avant... et sans doute les changements vont continuer à pleuvoir... ch'suis inondé déjà... qui pourrait suivre tout cela ?
Bon weekend et bisoux....

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Deborah, yeah, I love the old signs that one still can see sometimes, and not the new green ones for Toutes Directions... When I was little we had a card game that my grandmother brought home with her from a trip to France ages ago, called Mille Bornes, and if one looks a little, one can still find some of the old "bornes" along the national highways... I saw one today and was thinking of that childhood French road trip game...

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Dear FF, you're right, I think it is the silhouette of a generic parent figure, sexless, vague, universal, and god only knows what the strange round object near his or her posterior is...

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Techno Babe, it's wonderful to have choices... the spice of life...

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Jean, merci !

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Jim, the Wizard of Oz is full of wonderful little scenes like that, many thanks for remembering that one and sharing it here... love that movie, and the book it was based on... and the sequels to the first book...

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Blogitse... very hard to say... the triangle could be pointing left, right, or even up ! Your choice...

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Watercats... your other right ! You're alright !

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Steve, you naughty cherub you, to even notice such a decidedly dicey detail... but she doesn't seem embarrassed about it either, must be natural behavior here... or maybe that's what the sign is warning us about... don't follow too closely....
:-)

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Lydia, very hard to guess, I really don't know, hope not gunshots though, it was right in the middle of a small village...

Owen said...

Hi Dave, yeah, or they're walking backwards ?

Anonymous said...

It asks me somehow to print and cut it out, handig it out on the streets of this big town.
Somehow it is filled with a hope that I cannot yet discribe.

Please have a nice weekend.

William Evertson said...

... and if you see the sign for Coucy le Chateau you've gone too far.

Corine said...

It looks like two kids walking in the wrong direction without parental supervision..... quite a funny photograph :)

The Sagittarian said...

I love a good sign!!

Amy said...

Loving the dripping rust on this sign. I don't think I'd ask those folks for directions though.

Louis la Vache said...

«Louis» thanks you for visiting San Francisco Bay Daily Photo!

Roxana said...

"pour éviter de voir les trous... errr, les trous de mémoire on va dire" - no matter how much you made me smile here, i keep thinking there is much truth in this, sometimes memories can be a gouffre, sucking us in, and we need so much strength to look back, to turn back and cut ourselves free from the past...

Anonymous said...

je connais bien ces villes :)