Official names of places (cities, towns, etc.)

[brianagain]

Recently while driving to Valkenburg in the Netherlands we were intrigued by the different names given to places depending on which country we were. Our journey through France towards Belgium took us past Dunkerque (eng,. Dunkirk) towards Furnes. However once across the border we had passed Duinkerk and were heading towards Veurne before turning off on the N8 towards Ieper (Fr. Ypres). Later we passed Kortrijk (Fr. Courtrai) north of Rijsel (Lille) and Doornik (guess) towards Aken in Germany (D and Eng: Aachen and Fr: Aix la Chapelle). There are no doubt many more examples of confusing names (due no doubt to history) but is it not time that we had some kind of directive from Brussels/Bruxelles/Brussel (?) which made it a sensible idea to adopt the official name of each town/city as the norm. Firenza instead of Florence and Brugge instead of Bruges?. We British would agree to call the French capital PARIS if they could call the British capital LONDON (plus Canterbury not Cantorbery). It would at least make road signs a bit more understable in border regions.

Brian

[Anton Redman]

At a point where Belgium is finding it pretty hard to hold together as a country. I cannot imagine they are going to resolve the question of which language they want they road signs to appear in. At least they seem to have given up painting over either the Flemish or French version - normally both once everybody had been round on Sunday. That used to make navigation great fun in the late 60s.