French Resist Loss of Local Number Plates

A number 75 identifies you as a Parisian, and might see your car trashed in Marseille; a 93 links you to the troubled high-rises outside Paris; and a 23 could brand you a bumpkin from rural central France.

So when the French government moved to scrap the last two digits on car license plates which identify each driver's native department, officials thought the new anonymity would bring a sigh of relief. The only potential losers would be bored children on motorway journeys who play plate-spotting games.

But France's fierce regional identities have sparked a backlash as local politicians threaten a bumper-sticker war. "62 is us!" said the head of Pas-de-Calais's regional council last week after he spent €24,000 (£18,000) distributing tens of thousands of protest bumper stickers around northern homes. "The number 62 is part of our local culture." He argued that when a caravan with a Calais plate rolled up at one of France's ubiquitous summer campsites, the driver would be welcomed with an aperitif as the life of the party.

In the south, superstition had taken hold. "Our number 07 has brought luck to the Ardèche," the local Socialist council leader told Le Parisien. "It's part of our lives. If there's no more distinction made between us and the neighboring drivers from Drôme - number 26 - then there will be no more friendly road rage incidents on local roads."

Some are surprised by the rush to defend the departments, whose administrative borders were set up arbitrarily in the 18th and 19th centuries to deliberately carve up historical regions and ease the centralized running of the French state.

The new anonymous number plates, in line with EU legislation, will come into force next year. In the meantime, there will be a rush on bumper-sticker production to ensure cars wear a badge of local pride. Even with department numbers still in place, regional bumper stickers have long been big business in France, with cars proudly displaying symbols like the Catalan donkey, the Basque flag or the Béarnaise cow.

Now, "Honk if you're from Calvados or Savoie," might become a familiar sight on the road.