Because It learned to speak English ;)

'Cause they didn't want any stupid english speaking tourists causing accidents there.

=)

French don't stop there...they are usually placed in strategic points where, when a yankee stops, we can hammer them with rocks from high up...

They want to appease two of the countries that save their asses a lot???

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Proud Founder of the Jamis Mafia- Daring to be different.

"Anybody have any idea why a stop sign in France would say STOP? "

There was quite a movement in Quebec at one time to cleanse the Quebecois language of English words. A few people in Quebec government thought that they should have their own words for high tech, business and trendy English terms that are being adopted by the rest of the world. The ARRET signs in Quebec are probably part of that.

Try using the phrase "fin de semain" in France and see what sort of response you get. They tend to be okay with English words in their everyday lives... Quebec, not so much.

The French school I went to had this bizarre system of jetons. You started out with 5 on Monday. Each time a teacher or another student heard you speak an English word they were to take one of your jetons. We weren't even permitted to speak English at recess or before/after school in the hallways. Students who averaged 4/5 over the semester were taken on a special field trip, either bowling or shopping across the border in Hull. Fifteen years later and the scars left on my by this system have not healed.

[reply]"Anybody have any idea why a stop sign in France would say STOP? "

There was quite a movement in Quebec at one time to cleanse the Quebecois language of English words. A few people in Quebec government thought that they should have their own words for high tech, business and trendy English terms that are being adopted by the rest of the world. The ARRET signs in Quebec are probably part of that.[/reply]

My understanding is that Quebec is around the only place where the signs don't say "stop." That, at least in Europe, there are "stop" signs that say "stop" in Germany, Belgium, Sweden... even in Italy, although people don't pay much attention to those. I've not traveled to Asia or Africa or South America, so can't comment on those, but my sense is that France is not alone on this.

But, I could be wrong...

In Mexico the signs say "Alto"



-Joey
www.theraceguide.com

I rolled a stop sign outside Paris back in 1992 on my way to work one morning and got pulled over. The gendarme wrote me a ticket and gave me a court summons! for rolling a freakin stop sign on an empty road at 5:30 am!

I skipped the country and went on the lam.

And those Alto signs in Mexico have a mysterious habit of moving around. The cops in Ensenada carry portable ones in their car and they pull over American tourists on the main drag, while one cop is asking for your drivers license the other is sticking the stopsign at the intersection you just drove through...standard fine is $30 cash...nod nod wink wink.

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"A society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy."
John Sawhill

the french language in Quebec is sort of funny...everyone says 'oh the french use so much english'...when the Quebecois do just as bad...just different words or expressions...
For instance...the verb 'canceller' (to cancel) which in french is 'annuler' or you hear things such as 'jamme au bout' (which means major traffic jam) when in french we would use embouteillage...
I lived in both places...we both use as much english...just not the same things.

now, english has actually a lot more french words than the opposite...

remember the STOP PRE t-shirts?





Well the stop signs on French roads were meant to say STOP LANCE but there was a screw up at the factory.

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"A society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy."
John Sawhill

Here is the scoop on why signs in France say Stop and signs in Quebec say Arret.

In 1976, Quebec voters elected the Parti Quebecois (PQ), the first overtly separatist government in Canadian/Quebecois history. The PQ were/are deeply concerned about "preserving" the French/Quebecois culture in North America. As part of their plan to protect their culture, they setup the Office de la Langue Francaise (OLF), loosely translated; the Bureau for French Language. The mandate of the OLF is to ensure that the French language is predominantly displayed in both government and business signage. This is not such a crazy idea when you consider that a province where, in 1976, 75% of the population's mother tongue was French but most public signs were in English. It did however lead to some incredibly absurd laws, like forcing companies to take down the 'S at the end of their names so that Eaton's became Eaton and Simpson's became Simpson or even more bizarrely, trying to force restaurants to change the name of a hamburger to hambourgeois (a effort that went over like a lead balloon). But I digress.....

The OLF decreed that the word Stop was an English word and ordered municipalities to comply with the law and change the signs to say Arret. In some predominantly English municipalities, the local city erect signs that had both Arret and Stop on their faces. This inevitably led to pro-French or pro-English wingnuts defacing the signs by covering up one or sometimes ironically both words. The signs have become mostly Arret signs as the provincial government makes these signs available at a lower cost to the municipalities than the price of getting custom Arret/Stop signs made.

In France, there is an organization called L'Academie Francaise which regulates language use. However, they are not an official government agency and as such have no power to enact or enforce by-laws (Francois, correct me if I am wrong on this one). The Academie does provide an official resource to concerned parties such as dictionary publishers, book/magazine/newspaper editors, school boards, etc as to the proper use of the French language and the creation/syntax of new words, especially the explosion of new words created by the information technology boom. They are more like a standards setting group than the law makers/enforcers (goons?) represented by the OLF.

It is interesting to note that L'Academie Francaise recognizes both the verb Stopper and Arreter. The former means a brief pause or cessation of action before starting up again and the later implies the stopping of a specific action for an extended period of time. Now, if any of you have ever been to Montreal, let alone driven in the city, you will undoubtedly know that Montreal drivers barely "Stop" let alone "Arret"! But don't you think if they just put up a red octagon with no words at all everyone will get the message? Hope you like my story!

BTW, the Quebecois have WAY better swear words than the French, in fact they have way better swear words than just about any language anywhere!

Europe, for the most part, has always followed a standard traffic sign procedure. A "STOP" sign, will always say "STOP" regardless if you are in Spain, France, Germany or Texas. Speed limit signs are round, with a red border, white background and numbers in black. Recommended speed signs are blue background, white numbers and rectangular shaped. With the European Union getting more and more standards together, now, even the license plates are quite similar.

Nevertheless, I must say François' reply is so far the best one.

I can confirm the section on the Academie Francaise. I can also add that it was created by Cardinal Richelieu, around 1630 (I think 1635 but not 100%). Richelieu was the equivalent to prime minister for Louis XIII.