There are thousands of fake signs in the streets of Paris

undefined 2 avril 2024 undefined 11h54

The Editor

© ColorMaker / Shutterstock

So, you really can't trust anyone. Today, in the streets of Paris, there are hundreds and hundreds of obsolete signs, that are only there to mislead us. And even though the city had looked into the issue in 2021, for now, no changes in sight.

Here, a sign indicating a police station... that no longer exists. There, another one pointing the way to a conservatory... that has been relocated. The city is full of small anomalies like this, since currently, there are around 2000 out-of-service signs. And that could pose a little problem for the hundreds of thousands of tourists who arrive...


No district is spared

These signs, which most often indicate public establishments, such as post offices, town halls, or tourist sites, there are more than 800,000 in the capital. So it's understandable that it's not always easy to spot those that are out of date. However, there are over 2,000 in the streets of Paris, and it can become a real burden for those who are not locals, especially as the Olympics approach.

A small, concrete example highlighted by our colleagues at BFM: Bir Hakeim. Over there, many signs pointing towards the Eiffel Tower are placed incorrectly, and one can only imagine the immense disappointment of tourists who desperately follow them to the left, only to realize after a while that they should have clearly turned right. You have to admit, it doesn't look good for our international image.

In a more general way, the City of Paris has announced for some years now that it wants to remove the main signs (for example those indicating the major squares), obsolete or not, which take up a lot of space on the sidewalks, and are most often dirty and broken. And let's not lie to ourselves, there are other ways to navigate, such as GPS, or even the very friendly local shops! So we hope the city will keep its promises and quickly update everything.