GoKawiilFor more than 50 years, France's brown motorway signs have done far more than point the way: they've sold the country's history, culture and identity in seconds.
Most visitors to France notice the food, the villages and the landscapes. Fewer clock one of the country's most distinctive attractions flashing past the car window.
Across the country, thousands of illustrated signs in muted shades of brown point motorway drivers towards monuments, vineyards, famous local dishes and national sites. One might direct you to the Millau Viaduct or the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud. Another might highlight a region famous for its cheese. Some commemorate darker histories. On the motorway between Grenoble and Lyon, one panel marks the Izieu Memorial where 44 Jewish children and seven adult staff were arrested in 1944 on the orders of Klaus Barbie and deported to Auschwitz.
Taken together, the signs form one of France's most overlooked cultural projects: a vast open-air gallery designed to sell the country to itself and to anyone passing through.
"I visited a monastery thanks to one of the brown road signs just the other month," a colleague told me. "I've grown up seeing these signs, and I'd heard of Brou Monastery [near Bourg en Bresse], but I didn't know it was open to the public."
A crash course in France from the driver's seat
The unique motorway signs first appeared in 1972, multiplying to more than 500 in the seven years that followed. The state-commissioned panels promoted sites of interest like castles and manor houses, and elements of regional culture and identity – architectural styles, gastronomy and wildlife.