French Quirks: Media Spines

Media Spines? What the heck are those, you may ask. I'm talking about the part of books and DVDs, etc, that you see when they are lined up in shelves. Why is this blog-worthy?

Because the French do it differently! Now, I know I often let off steam when I find things that are different from the things in the US, things that I am used to. Whether these differences are unique to the French, I cannot say. I do, however, harbor some suspicions that the French decided on certain things because they HAVE to assert their very Frenchness on things.

So back to media spines. Why do they have to be different? Take a look (you can double click on the images if you have trouble seeing what I am talking about).

Books:

DVDs:


See how the American (and English, for that matter) titles are lined up, with the words top-down? The French titles are decidedly the other way, the words going bottom-up.

I am rather OCD about orderliness and this is one of the sources of my pet peeves, that the shelves do not look like they have been arranged properly. Anybody know why the French do it this way, pls let me know. Do the French have a different visual orientation? I need to understand in order to rid myself of this particular angst.