Paris offers personalized street signs in new heritage competition

With the help of an app, residents are encouraged to report damaged or missing plaques

Paris is dusting off its image ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games this summer in more ways than one. The latest initiative, launched by the city hall, invites residents to report damaged and missing street signs all across the municipality and get the chance to win a personalized plaque.

The project is called “À vos plaques, prêts, partez” (“On your plaques, ready, go!”) and runs from 18 December until 4 February. People willing to participate in the competition and help the city council will have to download and register on the DansMaRue app, which was specifically designed to involve residents in reporting any anomalies they spot in the urban environment.

Your own Parisian street sign

Street signs in Paris are considered part of the local heritage thus the authorities take their preservation seriously. The authorities seek to achieve two objectives with the current campaign.

On the one hand, conservation is an important policy for the Parisian administration, which extends not only to maintaining the facades of historical buildings but also to things like street signs and metro entrance signs. In fact, even the actual names of the streets are not haphazardly changed in a policy to preserve a city brand which remains recognizable generation after generation.

On the other hand, the French capital wants to freshen up its image ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games when more visitors than usual will flock to the city. This is where street signs will help them better orient themselves in an unfamiliar environment.

The city offers three rewards, all of which will be personalized street signs. There are no details what the authorities mean by “personalized”, but likely they will let the winner decide what to be inscribed on the plaque. The winner will be the participant who sends the most legitimate reports on the app. The other two winners will be determined by a random draw.