Notices by OpenCage (opencage@en.osm.town), page 2

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.

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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

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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

4/ Newfoundland (then known as the Dominion of Newfoundland, now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador) was originally it's own entity within the British Empire and only joined Canada in 1949.

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

#geoweirdness