January 2, 2002 La Saumane, Haute Provence, France
(An excerpt from my book-in-progress, Province of the Heart)
Today is really the first day of the euro, since yesterday, the day of its
formal introduction to the eurozone, everything was closed. It is marvelous to watch an entire
society wrenched into the sudden confrontation with a new means of doing
something they have been taking for granted their entire lives: exchanging money.
Change (pun intended) does not come easy—the oldsters around here still
reckon in the former French franc, which was retired soon after World War
II. But for me, the international
traveler, using a new currency brings only a blasé yawn. Francs, pesetas,
euros: it’s all the same. In fact, the euro is the easiest of them all, since
it is roughly equal to the dollar, at least for now. Pesetas are (oops!
were) 185 to the dollar, francs about 7.4 to the dollar,
so for the mathematically challenged like myself, it was always a matter of
either groping for the calculator or rounding up or down with careless abandon
in multiples of ten and hoping I wasn’t risking the poorhouse with my
purchases. And the numbers were always a bit of a shock: 1000 (pesetas) for
lunch, 100 (francs) for a pre-paid phone card. I say, bring on the euro!