Re: CHAT: postcodes

En réponse à Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...>:

>
> All you write is correct, except for the fact that a postcode does not
> mark a
> street, but a part of a street.
Of course, if you think of streets like the Melis Stokelaan in The Hague, in
which I saw door numbers ranging up to 2500 :))) .

 Usually, the even side has a different
> code
> from the uneven (odd?) side of the same street.
That on the other hand I didn't know. But I live in a street with only one side
with doors (the building on the other side opens to another street).

> Indeed, Amsterdam begins with 1000, where 1000-1009 are mailboxes.
> 1010-1019 is
> the centre of the city, and the further you go, the higher the number
> will be.
> Zaandam, where I live, has numbers from 1500. My postcode, 1501 CE,
> indicates
> that we live in the old part of the town, but not necessarility in the
> centre.
>
So thre is a logic behind the numbering? :))

>
> For sentimental reasons, I guess.
My friend told me it was more the pressure of the habit. But sentimental
reasons play a big role in pressuring to keep habits :))) .

 The name of a city/town/village and a
> street
> name leave much more space for both your imagination than four digits
> and two
> letters. And it's of course much easier to memorize.
Very true. And it makes addresses look a bit niceer than a bunch of digits :)) .

> Besides, people often make mistakes with postcodes, but the letter
> usually gets
> through anyway, sometimes with a small delay. I know people who still
> never use
> them.
>
Hehe, I will always remember an anecdote my mother told me, about the young
daughter of a friend of hers who wanted to send a letter to her grandmother
without telling anything to her parents. She wanted to do it by herself. They
were in holidays in the South of France and the letter was meant for a small
town near the one my parents live in. The little girl put the following
address: "chez Mamie" (at Granny's) followed by the name of the town (i can't
remember it). That's all!!! And the strangest thing is that the letter got
through!!!

>
> It depends very much where you live. The kind of thing you describe
> occur
> mainly in newly built neighbourhoods, but even there it is not uncommon
> that
> the building has one number, and an extension is used to differentiate
> between
> the apartments. There are different ways to do that:
> - with a floor number, for example nr. 25/2 or 25-II;
> - with a description, for example, nrs. 65hs and 65bv (abbreviations of
> "huis"
>   and "boven", meaning the lower and the upper part of the house
> respectively;
> - sometimes with a letter: 183A - 183J (all apartments within one
> block).
>
> In Haarlem there are even more variations: 12-rood, 15-zwart, 18-bel. I
> don't
> exactly know why they use colours for that, obviously for some historic
> reason.
>
But the point stays that different apartments have different numbers if you
count the extension. An apartment, whether it has a single number or a number
followed by a letter, a "bis" or a colour, always has it's own individual door
number. It's not the case in France. For instance, my parents have the address
172, rue Maurice Cadot, and they share the door number with the other fifteen
apartments of the building. There are no extensions to differentiate different
apartments.

> AFAIK all possible combinations have been used now; I'm really curious
> what
> they are going to do when they run out of codes: either six letters or
> six
> digits only, or by adding one letter or digit.
>
Or begin back again. After all, how many cars with the first plates still haunt
the roads? :)))

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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