Subject: FR, PT<br/>
Date: Feb 27, 2003 @ 21:24<br/>
Author: Francisco Santos (&quot;Francisco Santos&quot; &lt;xuax@netvisao.pt&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-489021988">I&#39;m including a photo of the border of France, Portugal.<br/>
Ok, it&#39;s half a joke. França is a village in Northern Portugal. It is also<br/>
the Portuguese name for France (the country).<br/>
Another part that is not a joke is that some malevolent people profited from<br/>
the coincidence of names. In the 60&#39;s of the XXth century many Portuguese<br/>
immigrated illegally to work in France. Some poor, illiterate people paid<br/>
lots of money to dealers (kind of mafia) who were supposed to take those<br/>
persons to France. After a not very long trip many were left at this village<br/>
of França. They couldn&#39;t complain. The poor people got what they had paid<br/>
for: to be taken to França (&quot;France&quot;).<br/>
So, in the 60&#39;s this entrance of França (village) was a kind of substitute<br/>
border of the dreamed France (country).<br/>
By the way, the village is only 5 km from the real PTES border, on the road<br/>
between Bragança (PT) and Puebla de Sanabria (ES).<br/>
<br/>
Francisco,<br/>
Portugal</div>