One of the things about living in an island state is that you rarely cross over national borders on land. To get to any other country from Britain you have to fly, sail or travel underground and all these have their various formalities for border crossing and, like most Britons travelling abroad, my travels within Europe in recent years have been a case of going from Britain to another country and then coming back.
So, on a day trip to France on Monday, we took a brief detour into Belgium and crossed a European border on land for the first time in several years. Having spent some time travelling through the US last year, it was quite an interesting experience to notice how little paraphernalia there is to mark the border nowadays, especially compared to the changes you notice on the borders of many US states. A simple ‘Belgie’ sign, a sign telling you the new speed limits and a single police car on the French side of the border are all that marks the transition from one country to another, which is a rather strange state of affairs. There are obvious differences that soon become apparent – the signs are now in Flemish, rather than French, and there are subtle differences in architecture – but the ease with which one can now cross borders within Europe is, in my opinion, one of the great benefits of European integration.
However, even though the physical borders have gone, it does not mean that there has been any homogenisation of the culture across the border. Adinkerk, the first town across the border in Belgium, is still unmistakeably Flemish, even with the large number of shops there selling cheap tobacco to British (and now also French, after their tobacco tax rises on Monday) visitors, and the other side of the border is still clearly French.
Anyway, what I want to do here is open up the floor to our readers for your thoughts on and experiences of travelling across borders. Are there places where the borders are unnoticeable physically and culturally? Where are there still strong border controls within the EU? What do you think the future is culturally for the borderlands of Europe? Will they maintain their identity or will continual cross-border traffic eventually create a homogenous border culture?
And, for a quick consumer travel tip for our readers. If you are planning on travelling between Britain and France then Eurotunnel are currently charging ?39 (approx ?59) to take a car and passengers for a day return trip.
I would say that there aren’t too many noticeable differences between Alsace (france) and Southern Rhineland-Palatinate or Western Baden-Wuerrtemberg (germany). Likely due to the regions history, it’s certainly less obvious than the Franco-German border in Sarrebruck/Forbach. Also, the Tyrolean/Italian cultural border in Northern Italy is very gradual. On the other hand, the architectural/cultural borders in Switzerland are quite pronounced, in my opinion.
This all reminds of an old old black and white Franco-Italian movie with Tito and another actor whose name escapes me (his face for some reason resembled a face of a horse to my vivid imagination). In that movie, the horse-faced actor played a French gandarme (spelling) and Tto played, I believe a criminal. The whole mfilm was set in a bar whose one half was in Italy and another in France.
Does anyone know what I am talking about or am I just full of it?
It was Toto, not Tito. And the movie was called “The Law is the Law”. The horse-faced actor was named Fernandel.
“Tyrolean/Italian cultural border in Northern Italy is very gradual”
Ditto for the French-Spanish border. But isn’t this partly because long-standing cultural communities tend to straddle the frontiers between the more recent nation states. If there wasn’t a large mass of water between Wales and Brittany, wouldn’t we notice more easily that many of the inhabitants have a lot in common?
Is this a bit like the ‘identical twins who’ve never met’ situation?
OTOH Calais has often felt to me like another version of Dover, but I guess there are other reasons for this.
The French/Italian border on the southern coastal road in France is very understated (no police as far as I could see). However the differences between Menton (the French town on the border) and Ventimiglia were, well like being in a different country. Ventimiglia also had vast amounts of liquor stores — Italian tax is far lower than French — but peculiarly (for a Brit) selling not lager but Pernod.
The BeNeLux Borders to germany are really no longer significant, and the contrast to the procedure the Brits make about everyone who wants to enter their island is really an exception in central Europe. As much I love them, I’m sure they’d do it even if the UK were not an island.
😉