Friday, June 18, 2010

Crossing the border

On Tuesday we crossed a border. It's the part of the border between our département, le Loir-et-Cher, and a neighboring one, l'Indre. Of course, we cross these borders all the time and usually see a very contemporary sign welcoming us to the new département. But I've never noticed this old version of the limit marker.

The Indre on the left, the Loir-et-Cher (where we live) on the right.

It's on a very small road out in the country that doesn't get much traffic, except for locals and tractors. We stopped to take pictures of a field of poppies and noticed it. Otherwise, we might have missed it altogether. It stands about a meter tall. The inscription carved on the rounded top says, "Limite de départe." They didn't have room for the -ment, apparently.

A closer look at the inscription.

I wonder if this would be called une borne like the little distance markers you often see alongside French roads. Those are red or yellow and white and indicate how many kilometers you are from the town you're headed toward and/or which route you are on. They're much smaller than this one.

11 comments:

  1. I'm glad they're filling in the
    ditch and that they tamp it down
    really well so you can eliminate
    the boards when you are clipping
    the hedge -- soft dirt into which
    the ladder sinks would be just
    as bad as none at all.

    Wouldn't you love to have that
    marker in your garden? Bet in the
    US it would have been long gone.

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  2. I have never seen that type of "borne" before. It looks very old.

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  3. Great new "find" in addition to finding the sealer you needed for your floor. We also enjoyed the poppy photos.

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  4. Very cool marker. I like weathered stone stuff :)

    Now... remind me about the ditch that's being filled? Where is it?

    Judy

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  5. Great find. And great pics.

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  6. I recall some sort of card game from my youth, with 'borne' in them. Vague memory, this.

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  7. sheila, yes, I would love one of those for the garden!

    nadege, that's what I thought, too.

    evelyn, you never know how things are going to go...

    judy, the ditch is along the road outside of our hedge.

    starman, thanks.

    chris, :)

    michael, it's called "mille bornes." It still exists and I have one. I saw a kid and his dad playing on the train last October!

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  8. What changes when you leave The Loire?

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  9. stephen, well, not much if you're only going a few kilometers over the border...

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  10. How cool is that?! LOVE the pics!!

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