French roundabouts

French roundabout. Image copyright Le Franco Phoney blog, La Clusaz, France

I’m back from a quick road trip to Nice, and a blog entry with lots of photos of the route will follow soon. But for now, here’s some insight into French roundabouts. During my trip, I passed all sorts of interesting roundabouts, but most of the time it was too hard to stop for a photo. I’ve taken some, but here are just a few of the roundabouts I came across (that I remember):

  • giant statues of sheep grazing, rolling on their backs and dancing (!?) on a grassy roundabout near Chambery;
  • various animal carvings on roundabouts near the Col de Galibier;
  • a man-sized globe of the earth in Digne-les-Bains;
  • roundabouts in various villages celebrating le Tour de France bike race (due to go through those villages within the next few weeks);
  • a giant copper perfume distiller in Grasse, the home of many perfumeries; and,
  • a télépherique in Serre Chevalier (pictured).

And of course, just before La Clusaz, I passed my local ‘happening’ roundabout in St. Jean de Sixt, which had a mannequin dressed in Napoleonic battle costume, perched on the roof of the little house. It was too dark to take a good photo. I think the man that puts the mannequins on the roundabout might have been drinking a bit before that one…

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About

I'm a technical author, journalist and writer from Australia who has been living in Europe since 2000 and exploring the world from there. My passions are writing, snow sports and travel.

2 Comments on “French roundabouts

  1. OK, I admit it. Your roundabouts are more interesting than the ones I have failed to photograph in Switzerland. Clearly your female ability to multi task allows you to take photos while driving, while I, as a mere male would have to stop (tricky on a roundabout) and then faff about for ages to get the photo right. Was watching the Tour de France the other night, and saw quite a few interesting ones, plus a lot that where just manky grass, presumably the local council is saving up for something to impress the neighbours.

    Great writing, keep it up!