 One of these primary things is French brand cars. The French roads are full of Renault, Citroen and Peugeot. If you spot a few cars featuring any of these three logos then there is a good chance you are in France. Another key giveaway for France is the French language. The French language is easy to identify because well…it sounds French. If you say the words you see out aloud and it sounds like French then it probably is. Visually, the French letters include the ç (also found in Portuguese), ë, è, é, ï and à. France stands out in Europe for its uniquely shaped bollards. These are cylindrical shaped, white in colour and have a red or gray reflector stripe going around them. They are a different shape to typical European bollards. France also uses the unique department signs that are a yellow rectangle enclosing the letter ‘D’ followed by a number. The French road numbering system is rather cumbersome but seeing these small, yellow rectangles ensures that you are in France. French roads are also distinct from the rest of Europe. Firstly, they tend to be better maintained than those found in Eastern Europe. Secondly, they often have rather long white dashes on their sides. Some Nordic countries also have white side dashes but the French dashes stand out because they are extra long. There are a few more clues that help out in France. The word ‘rue’ means ‘street’ and you will often find this word on metropolitan street signs. France has standard, European license plates that typically don’t help identify the country however some parts of France such as chunks of the south still have the outdated generation 2 Street View camera images. As a result, you may see the now outdated yellow, rear French license plates in the odd instance. The French landscape is rather diverse however many rural locations have a narrow road surrounded by greenish fields. The French landscape has a Mediterranean vibe in the south and a distinctly different mountainous feel in the eastern Alps. One of the best ways to identify France is by looking for French car brands. The above image shows the Renault logo. Citroen cars are another common French car brand. The above logo is the Citroen logo. The Peugeot car brand is also popular in France. France has many license plates that have a thick blue stripe on the left and a rather narrow blue stripe on the right. Albania and Italy have similar plates however Albania and Italy have thick stripes on both sides of the plate. The French language is my favourite language in the world as each sentence sounds like poetry. As well as France, French in Europe is spoken in western Switzerland and southern Belgium. It’s also fairly easy to identify if you read the words aloud and they sound French. Letters include the ç (also found in Portuguese), ë, è, é, ï and à. There are two types of French bollard, both are the same distinct shape and different from typical European bollard shapes. This is the first type with a gray reflector strip running around it. This is the second type of French bollard. It has a red reflector strip running around it. Like the first type of French bollard, it has a unique shape, different from standard European bollards. Note: Scotland very occasionally has bollards that look similar to this French red and white bollard; however, Scottish bollards are wider. This is one version of French utility pole. Note that there are no holes but rather indents. Spain can have similar utility poles that are whiter in colour. This is another fairly common French utility pole. The concrete pole has holes in it. Romania, Hungary and Poland have holes in their poles however these countries have less holes than French utility poles. Turkey can also have holes in their metal utility poles. Some wooden French utility poles have a small, blue rectangular shape on them. French towns typically consist of two-storey buildings made out of visible stone. The buildings virtually join one another and are built right on the edge of the footpath. Minor roads in France are known as ‘D’ roads (departmental roads). They are denoted by the letter ‘D’ and a number inside a yellow rectangle. If you want to learn the D road numbering system- don’t! It is insanely complicated and illogical. Many French roads have these very long, white dashes along both sides of the road. Nowhere else in Europe has such long side dashes as French dashes. In rare cases, France has shorter dashes on the sides of the road. The word ‘rue’ translates from French to English as ‘street’. On metropolitan street corners, it’s standard to see the word ‘rue’ on signs. The most common French license plates you see will be the standard European plate, which isn’t particularly useful for GeoGuessr purposes. Parts of southern France are still covered by the generation 2 Street View camera. As a result, you may rarely see the odd yellow license plates on the rears of some French cars. France is a diverse looking country. It has many grass fields and after Poland is the second country I will guess if I see a European grass field without other clues. France is a country with a neat cycling race and a neat division of telephone number prefixes. Some towns in Alsace, a region in North-Eastern France, have bilingual road signs as does Basque Country. The French region of Brittany in north-western France has bilingual road signs featuring both French and Breton. The bilingual road signs indicate the French region of Brittany. Houses in the French western region of Brittany are distinct and are white with black roofs. Houses in Brittany, a western region of France, are coloured white with dark roofs. Three French cities are divided into ‘arrondissement’ or districts- Paris, Lyon and Marseille. A number followed by ‘arr’ is visible on most street signs in these cities (eg. 12th arr). If you look at the GeoGuessr map at the right zoom level, arr are visible on the map. Street signs in Paris will typically have a number followed by ‘Arr’ on them. In this example 15th Arr is displayed. ‘Arr’ means arrondissement which is the equivalent of a district. Paris is divided into 20 arrondissement and these appear on the map. If you zoom in the correct distance on the map, the 20 arrondissement in Paris are visible. The street sign in the image above this one shows that we are in the 15th arr. We can see the 15th arr above. As well as Paris, Lyon and Marseilles are also divided into arrondissement. In this example we are in the 3rd Arr in Lyon. We can zoom into the map of Lyon and find the 3rd arrondissement. A street sign from Marseille. Notice ’14th Arr’ on the top of the sign. This indicates that we are in the 14th arrondissement of Marseille which we can find on the map. The below map shows where French towns with certain names can be found. For example if you see the French town of ‘Frignicourt’ you can examine the below map and notice that French towns ending in ‘ourt’ are found in the north-north-east of France. In addition to those mentioned below, French towns ending in ‘-heim’ are likely to be in the east of France, closer to Germany. French towns ending in ‘-az’ are likely to be found in the French alps, typically around Annecy. A map showing where the names of different French towns are distributed throughout France. Some notes: ‘Commence par’ means ‘starts with’, ‘Fini end’ means ‘ends with’ and ‘Contient’ means ‘contains’. Many towns in France are situated on a river and this is reflected in their name. In these instances, the town will be called ‘name s/ river’ or ‘name sur river’. In the above example, the town is called Cosne S/ Loire. This means we need to look along the Loire River for the town. The French island of Corsica has a Mediterranean feel and the middle of the island has mountains. Many roads on Corsica have short, white dashed lines along the sides of the road. There are a reasonable percentage of yellow, rear license plates on Corsica. The French island of Corsica often has shorter, white dashes on the sides of the road. It also has mountains in the centre of the island and a Mediterranean feel elsewhere. Many rear license plates in Corsica are yellow with the vertical, blue left stripe of the standard European plates.

Bollard:

French Bollards are super easy to recognize. It very large. Some of them are all white, while others have a red reflector. Both have the same design however.

These are a little more rare. Its the same general design but with a weird top red cap. These are found mostly where you would expect there to be snow.

Road Lines:

The right shoulder line is dashed, not solid. This is very unique and is a very good indicator. All of the lines will be white.

Road Signs:

These are scattered across the major roads, telling you not only the road you’re on, but also how far along you are.

You can also see these road signs, pointing to local towns and cities. The A roads are across all of France while the E roads are shared between European Countries. The one road lettering system you don’t want to look for would be the D roads. These are Department roads, and each of the 96 French departments have their own numbers.

Street Signs:

France uses the word “Rue” on most of their signs.

License plates:

Those would be the Yellow plates. Most of the newer coverage has the white plates. However, due to the blur, its tough to tell the difference from most of the EU countries.

