With the legal deadline fast approaching, we take a look at why a law to name hundreds of thousands of unnamed roads is such a challenge for towns across France. We also find out how the change for 1.8 million French addresses could help first responders, but also hurt regional heritage.
This Entre Nous aired on Paris Direct, May 29, 2024. A programme produced by Amanda Alexander, Marina Pajovic and Georgina Robertson.
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This Entre Nous aired on Paris Direct, May 29, 2024. A programme produced by Amanda Alexander, Marina Pajovic and Georgina Robertson.
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
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NewsTranscript
00:00Well, for many of you who've gone for a drive or a walk in the French countryside,
00:04getting lost on a road or a path with no name is actually pretty common.
00:09But the French government is now trying to get smaller towns to change that and give
00:13those places a name.
00:15We're going to talk more about this with Solange Mougin, who joins me in the studio.
00:18Hi, Solange.
00:19Hi, Jenny.
00:20So, giving a name to these places or these roads is a little more complicated than it
00:23seems, and it also seems that there's a deadline that's approaching to establish these addresses.
00:28Yeah, there are just two days left for small French towns that have less than 2,000 residents
00:33— and there are 35,000 of them — for them to make sure that they have names on all their
00:37roads, homes, and places in their village.
00:41They all have a specific address.
00:42Now, this move is part of a law called the 3D legislation, and it was passed in 2022.
00:48It's named the 3D because of the — so it's called the Differentiation, Decentralization,
00:55and Deconcentration and Simplification Law.
00:58And its goal is essentially to simplify the work of town halls across France.
01:02But one element of this law — the giving of addresses and road names to hundreds of
01:07thousands of places — well, it's proving to be a huge undertaking.
01:11Bigger towns had until January 1st, and now these smaller towns have until Saturday, June
01:161st, to abide by the law.
01:19Before the law, there were more than 350,000 roads and routes in France that did not have
01:24an official name.
01:25Just 15% of small towns had done this for all addresses.
01:29Now, today, the changes concern nearly two million French people who will now have a
01:34new or a different address.
01:36For example, in the town of Macaulays in central France, there are less than 600 residents,
01:42but there are hundreds of names that needed to be given.
01:47We're establishing between 400 and 450 addresses in the town of Macaulays, which is a lot.
01:54So it would be surprising if there aren't ones we forget, make mistakes on, or double
01:59up.
02:00Things like that.
02:01César Lange, why does the government want these places in France to have specific addresses?
02:06And what will happen if they don't?
02:08Well, luckily and hopefully, nothing will happen for now for these town halls, as there
02:13are some 200,000 roads that haven't been named yet.
02:17Just over half of these towns have done so, but the other half have not.
02:21There are no fines currently if the town does not name every route.
02:26But that said, once the law goes into effect June 1st, if the municipality hasn't done
02:31it, then it could be liable for damages if the lack of an address causes, for example,
02:36firefighters or ambulances to lose their way and not to get to a fire or an ill person
02:41because they got lost.
02:42So small towns, but also cities before them, while they've been working for years to name
02:46or some of them have been working for years to name everything.
02:49In some places, like in the southwest town, city of Sala, the city asked locals what they
02:54wanted for their unnamed streets.
02:59On social media, the name that came out on top was Simon Veil, Simon de Beauvoir and
03:03Josephine Baker, but also more original names like Truffle Street or Foie Gras Road, because
03:08we're in the capital of gastronomy.
03:10The added value is clear in regard to tourism, to use GPS location tracking.
03:14It's also the case for first responders.
03:16You have to think about how it will be easier for them to find out where they need to be.
03:20And finally, it will help mail services with letters and packages.
03:25As we just heard, there are many reasons to create established road names and addresses.
03:30Many homes are actually given large numbers of their addresses.
03:33And this actually refers to the meters from the start of the road.
03:37This is for future urbanization and also to help first responders know the distance.
03:42So there is this safety aspect.
03:45There's also high speed internet cables.
03:47They require specific address tags.
03:49GPS systems also use them as do postal and delivery personnel.
03:54All right.
03:55So there's a lot of arguments as to why these address changes and these new names are a
03:58good thing.
03:59But the law has still created quite a bit of an uproar.
04:01Well, there's the question of what to name these roads and paths.
04:07Sometimes it works out well in a sort of collegial manner with towns picking specific
04:13names either that already existed by word of mouth or are in the history of the place
04:18or are picking new ones that have a specific local significance.
04:23Those choices have solidified the history of these places.
04:28People like narratives, not lies, stories.
04:30It can help younger generations who feel lost to understand their history.
04:35As we say in the north, in Ch'ti, if you don't know where you come from, you can't
04:38know where to go.
04:41However, as Jeanne was referring to it, there has been a lot of pushback as well because
04:47sometimes the changes have not taken into account regional specificities and regional
04:52languages or the choices have actually been outsourced because doing the research and
04:58naming things, well, it costs money and time.
05:01Many hamlets or lieu d'as we call them in French, well, they've been called by a specific
05:05name for hundreds of years and then they were suddenly changed into something else entirely.
05:10In Alsace, where there's a strong regional sentiment, there's been pushback about naming
05:14streets in French versus Alsatian.
05:17In Brittany also, an association has even called on UNESCO to help save these lieu d'as
05:22or these hamlet names, which they argue have been given names in French and not in the
05:26traditional Breton.
05:28So there are many people in French villages who fear that these changes and the standardization,
05:32well, that it's chipping away from their local history and their regional specificities.
05:37All right, Solange, that's fascinating stuff.
05:39Thank you so much for that look at that new law that's going to make addresses necessary
05:45here in France.
05:46Thank you very much.
05:47Thanks to Solange and thanks to you for watching Don't Go Away.
05:49I'll be back at the top of the hour with more headlines.