Notices by OpenCage (opencage@en.osm.town)

@vkc @underdarkGIS Slow is steady. Steady is fast.

Irish 🇮🇪 #geoweirdness, secrets strange and bold,
across the isle, an odd tale to be told.
Cork to Donegal,
we'll unveil it all -
in this thread, the story will unfold.

1/

2. First of all, some clarification on terms: Ireland is an island in the north Atlantic.

The island is divided between the country Ireland 🇮🇪 (Éire in Irish, and
sometimes referred to as the "Republic of Ireland" or simply "the Republic") and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom 🇬🇧.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Irish_state

#geoweirdness

3. Ireland 🇮🇪 is part of the EU 🇪🇺, and the land border and freedom of movement with the UK 🇬🇧 proved to be a tricky point to resolve in Brexit negotiations.

The "border" itself is 499km long with about 300 crossings, often entirely unmarked.

https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/gallery/border-lines-between-uk-ireland-16678901

#geoweirdness

In today's episode of why geocoding is hard

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1077433129

#geocoding

4/ France 🇫🇷 also includes the islands Saint Pierre and Miquelon 🇵🇲 (ISO code "PM") just off the coast of Canada 🇨🇦

#geoweirdness

5/ France 🇫🇷 has numerous Caribbean islands, including Saint Martin where it shares a land border with the Kingdom of the Netherlands 🇳🇱 territory Sint Maarten 🇸🇽

#geoweirdness

6/ France 🇫🇷 once had a territorial dispute with ... Mexico 🇲🇽 regarding ownership of tiny Clipperton Island in the Pacific.

Arbitration determined it to belong to France
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipperton_Island

Here's our recent Mexican #geoweirdness thread
https://en.osm.town/@opencage/109851103892999726

A big welcome to all our new followers from recent days.

Once a week we do a thread about geo stuff, this week we turn our attention to one of the most geographically strange countries of them all: France 🇫🇷

Join us for this week's #geoweirdness thread

1/n

2/ Where to begin?

First up, what most people think of as 🇫🇷 France is actually only "Metropolitan France"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_France

But France is much bigger and includes many other territories.

#geoweirdness

3/ As we covered in our #geoweirdness thread from a few weeks ago, 🇫🇷France's longest border is, perhaps surprisingly, with ... 🇧🇷 Brazil along the border of the French Département de la Guyane (French Guiana 🇬🇫)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Guiana

#geoweirdness

See our thread on Brazilian #geoweirdness
https://en.osm.town/@opencage/109851103892999726

7/ As we mentioned in last week's thread - France 🇫🇷 and Italy 🇮🇹 have an open border dispute about the exact course of their border on Mont Blanc 🏔️ in the Alps

#geoweirdness

8/ France 🇫🇷 also borders the micro state of Monaco 🇲🇨 on the Mediterranean coast.

Monaco is a fully independent country, but uses the French postal system.

#geoweirdness

9/ Another tiny nation bordering France 🇫🇷 is land-locked Andorra 🇦🇩.

One bizarre remnant of medieval tradition is that the ruler of France -previously the king, now the president (currently Emmanuel Macron) - also holds the position of "Co-Prince of Andorra", along with the Bishop of Urgell.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-Princes_of_Andorra

#geoweirdness

10/ Not far from Andorra 🇦🇩 is the village of Llívia. It is a tiny bit of Spanish 🇪🇸 territory entirely surrounded by France 🇫🇷

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ll%C3%ADvia

#geoweirdness

11/ Spain 🇪🇸 and France 🇫🇷 have a delightful border dispute over the tiny Pheasant Island island in the middle of the Bidasoa river. The solution: the island changes ownership every 6 months.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheasant_Island

#geoweirdness

12/ Many countries have dependent territories, and so does France 🇫🇷, but it even has the "overseas country" (Pays d'outre-mer in French) of French Polynesia 🇵🇫

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_country_of_France

#geoweirdness

13/ Further west from there we have New Caledonia 🇳🇨 and France's territories in the Indian Ocean: Réunion 🇷🇪 and Mayotte 🇾🇹. All part of France 🇫🇷.

Indeed the world's longest regularly scheduled non-stop domestic flight is Paris to Réunion, over 9,000km

#geoweirdness

Time for another #geoweirdness thread. This week we consider the geographic oddities of Norway ??

#norway #norge

1/n

3/ Canada ?? is subdivided into 10 provinces and 3 territories. They are administered slightly differently, territories control less of their own affairs. Nunavut is the newest (and largest) territory and was established in 1999

https://answersblurb.com/why-does-canada-have-provinces-and-territories

#geoweirdness