We drove to Frankfurt on Friday to attend a family gathering celebrating Sylvias aunt Ilona’s 70. birthday. We left the freeway to drive through the Swiss Jura and the villages and towns along the way. Besides passing through a narrow gorge carved apparently by an ancient river, this route took us through the transition from French to German areas of Switzerland. Some places show bilingual signs, but many are either or, and we transitioned back and forth: French to German, back to French, until eventually an abrupt transition to German as we got closer to Basel. In between some seemingly schizophrenic places with all or mostly German names of people (as judged from adverts and the names on business doors) but completely French signage and advertising.
Hi Uli / Sylvia –
Growing up in Wales made me familiar with the concept of bilingual signs at a young age…
here is a link to my all time favorite bi-lingual sign 🙂
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7702913.stm