I believe I mentioned in one of my Ottawa posts that I tend to take photos of weird things on vacation... and yes, that includes signs! Signs and storefronts are so interesting, and one thing I loed about the old town and the old port in particular, is how fond they are of hanging sings like these for businesses and especially restaurants! I just think it has such old world charm, and love the bold graphics, often with high contrast and bright colours or metallics used to catch your eye.
I love the pig sign!! It reminds me of the movie Delicatessen, my favourite film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeaunet. You may find his name familliar, as he also directed cult hit Amelie, also known as the most charming love story ever. Until you see Delicatessen, that is. You could probably make that argument for just about any of his movies, but the post-apocalyptic setting of this love story is pretty unique. It takes place at a post-apocalyptic butcher shop with upstairs apartments for rent. It deals with cannibalism and yet, it's really funny. This is why Jean-Pierre Jeunet is one of my favourite contemporary filmmakers.
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One of the things Ephraim and I were s amused with was the different signage for fast food restaurants, most notably McDonalds. I guess due to signage bylaws, McDonalds has to have a deep green and low-lustre brass painted sign. It almost looked classy. Almost. I didn't get a photo because I felt super weird about photographing people eating their burgers, and they were on busy streets!
Have you ever traveled somewhere that familiar things were just a little bit different like that?
--Erin
These signs are beautiful! I wish more High Streets went to the effort of preserving beautiful little things like these. I love the bunnies, and that pig kind of reminds me of Delicatessen too, we watched it in a French class at school and it freaked me out for ages, but when I watched it again recently I thought it was hilarious xo
ReplyDeleteIn my little town it isn't so much that there are nice signs, as that certain businesses aren't allowed to be on the main (and only) strip of businesses. So there's a McDonalds a few Kms out of town. And they close at 8.
DeleteI wish my french classes had watched interesting things. We watched Free Willy in the 9th grade. I wonder how hard she had to look for a french dubbed VHS of something not even remotely french produced. Or how it fit into the curriculum...
--Erin
Tried to convince my husband that the first picture was warning people to watch out for tortoises dressed as bunnies. He didn't fall for it.
ReplyDeleteHaha my Dad said "Warning: rapidly growing rabbits" :P It was actually the sign for this amazing place we went for lunch! Their specialty is rabbit, and they had tons of rabbit things in their decor. In the tasteful way, not like some horrible rabbit themed diner.
Delete--Erin
I can definitely see where the sign would make you think of Delicatessen. Cool post--I love looking around at storefronts and signs in interesting cities--one of many good differences between living in rural California verses the Netherlands :)
ReplyDeleteHaha at this point if I ever went to the restaurant (not that there'd be anything there for me to eat as a vegetarian), I'd be disappointed if Clown wasn't on the menu :P
DeleteBravo, Erin.
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