1. Back when most people couldn’t read, a lot of European cities developed the tradition of indicating through images, rather than through written words, the services of a given shop. While this isn’t necessarily the case now, there are a few shops that continue the tradition in Paris, like this optician specialized in progressive lenses.
2. This one, of course, caught my fancy: this man reading is advertising a bookshop that buys and sells used books in one of Paris’ covered passages.
3. I can’t help but love this gent too, with his wine bottle and hot roast on a platter. This sign hangs, not outside a shop, but outside a restaurant in the North Marais.
4. This simple sign shows the way, as one might imagine, a cobbler’s.
5. But this might be my favorite sign of all. Showing hanging aged hams, the sign – like the name of the store – is a play on words: cochon means pig (a reference to the hams and charcuterie sold here), and caractère de cochon means someone moody or poorly tempered.