Money Makes the World Go ’round, Especially in €uroland

€uro currency sans the Big Bucks

Sometimes my purse makes me think that I am carrying around lead weights. I look inside, and I ask myself, “What is so heavy in here?” Emptying the contents on the table, it becomes very clear. Too many coins! Around our house in America, we had a couple of small banks into which one of us emptied our small change. And it’s not the taller one of us. Steve had a bank—a ceramic blue Schnauzer that reminds us of our own by-proxy dog-princess, Scout— on his dresser that I bought for him that managed to collect dust, not coins. I keep a piggy bank in the kitchen for loose coins. Almost every day, I would sort out the pennies, nickels, and dimes and deposit them in the pig, keeping the quarters for use. I would take a bag of coins to the bank periodically and feed them into the counting machine to see how much we had managed to accrue since the last visit.

Here in France, I carry around a lot of coins for a number of reasons. First, there are more coin denominations here, including €1 and €2 coins. Also, des pièces de monnaie (coins) come in handy to deposit in the cups of the beggars who station themselves outside la Poste (post office) and some of the nearby supermarchés that will tolerate their loitering. Also, you need coins to deposit into the distributeurs automatiques de billets (ticket machines) in order to buy a tram ticket. But the real reason that I have some much brass in my purse is because I’ve never been very good about holding onto paper money (what I consider real money) even in America, and all I’m usually left with is spare change.

In Europe, I find the euro to be an interesting phenomenon. Not since the Roman Empire has as many people from so many different countries used a single currency. The name euro was adopted in 1995, and euro coins and notes started circulating January 1, 2002. The euro is the sole currency of 16 EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. These countries comprise the Eurozone, some 326 million people in total. In addition, the euro is the official currency of non-EU members Montenegro and Kosovo. And it’s also legal tender in several of Europe’s tiny states, like Vatican City (the Vatican issues its own coins, but it does not issue banknotes), San Marino, and Monaco. Collectively, these countries are known as Euroland.

 

Euro coins aplenty

Euroland uses eight different euro coins from one cent to two euros—1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 cents, 1 euro, and 2 euro coins. (Now you see why I have so much change.) All issuing countries use a common reverse, which is the map of Europe and 12 stars that depict Europe as a continent without borders. This differs from the original design that showed the original EU 15-member states outlined as separate countries. (Is this a sign of moving towards real European unity?) Each individual country has its own designs that reflect something about their country on the obverse, such as Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man, one of Italy’s obverse designs. Spain has used a head of Cervantes, Don Quixote‘s author, and the Vatican also issues coins with the current pope’s likeness. At the Euro Information Website, you can pick a country and see images of the bills and the different coins using the menu on the left of the page under the title Euro Notes and Coins.

Vitruvian Man €1 Italian coin

The bank notes are by far the most colorful pieces of currency that you’ll see around. There are seven denominations from €5 to €500. These include 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 euro notes. (I’ll probably never actually touch anything above a 50.) Some common features can be found on all of them: the European flag, the initials for the European Central Bank in five versions (BCE, ECB, EZB, EKT, and EKP), the map of Europe, the signature of the ECB president at the time of their issuance, and the word Euro, which for now is in Latin and Greek, but Cyrillic is to be added on new versions. A representation of a building feature from different European architectural periods graces the notes in sequence: Classical–€5, Romanesque–€10, Gothic–€20, Renaissance–€50, Baroque–€100, Iron and Glass–€200 and Modern 20th Century–€500. Each is a different color and size, and holograms are included on the €5 to €20 bills and holographic decals on the €50 and higher denominations.

In addition to all these features, the bills and coins were designed for better use by the sight impaired. There is an intaglio printing (as in die stamping and gravure done from a plate in which the image is sunk below the surface) on the bills that can be felt to make them distinguishable. Adopting different sizes and colors of the bills, and likewise, varying the size and thicknesses of the coins, has made this currency user-friendly.

As we are traveling to many countries in Europe, having a standard European currency makes our traveling a lot easier, so we can skip the currency exchanges when we cross borders. Now our only travel problems are staying under the airline weight limit and not setting off the metal detectors because of all these coins that we carry!

 

Cervantes coin

Pope on a euro

Euro banknotes: Aren’t they pretty?

Click on this to see a YouTube video of the scene of the 1972 movie with Liza Minelli & Joel Gray:
Money Makes the World Go ‘Round- from the movie, “Cabaret”

Vous méritez une pause aujourd’hui: You deserve a break today….

McDonald’s – Centre Ville Grenoble

When a picture of France flashes across your mind, what do you think of? Is it le Tour Eiffel, or maybe, beret-wearing, cigarette-smoking hommes (men), or how about Gene Kelly singing and dancing in the rain? Or is it les baguette-toting, fromage-eating, vin-drinking Françaises. I would bet that it is not McDonald’s. No, not in this land of haute-cuisine and gourmet cafés. Even though, McDo, as it is called here, does not have as huge a presence as it does in the United States, it is still an American icon that is much revered, especially by the youth of France. McDonald’s has been operating in France since 1972, opening in Créteil, and then in Strasborg in 1979, and now has 1,134 franchised restaurants nationally. They claim that over one million French consumers eat in a McDonald’s per day and 450 million customers annually.

Before the Internet was available in our apartment, we needed to find Wi-Fi (pronounced wee-fee in French) access in order to keep our blog readers abreast of our adventures. I found places that I could get free Wi-Fi, but I often had to ask for connection information to hook up, which often consisted of close to 25 letter and number combinations or I would have limited time to use the network. When I discovered free unlimited access at a McDonald’s within a two-minute walk of our apartment and for which I needn’t ask anyone for a password, I was ecstatic.

We hadn’t frequented McDonald’s in America much in recent years except for when we would be traveling by car and needed coffee to keep us awake on a long drive. Watching our figures and turning mostly vegetarian made “dining” out at McDonald’s not the best option when we thought of fast-food options. Therefore, initially when we hunted for internet access, McDo’s wasn’t the first place to spring to mind, but in the end, that’s where we ended up.

Steve couldn’t resist trying one

My initial excuse for going to the golden arches was to link to the Internet to check email and write my blog, but as I spent time there at various times of the day, my innocent voyeurism surfaced—I enjoy people watching. I observed that at the various times that I was there, whether in the morning or afternoon, and this is in no way scientific, most of the diners were groups of young folks, say 16- to 25-year-olds. There were the occasional dads with the little kids and their Happy Meals, but rarely did I see older folks, or dare I say, even those “my age,” chowing down.

The local McDo was recently rebuilt in the past few years, and it has had green features incorporated into it. They used sustainable woods, and they recycle the oils that are used for the cooking and built in energy-efficient features. I would ensconce myself with one of the best café lattes I’ve ever had in the top floor dining area in handy proximity to the gender-neutral restroom. Boy, did I get a surprise one day when I emerged and found a guy in the bathroom with me!

McDrive with covered ramp

There is also a drive-through that accounts for about 45% of the business and sports the sign, the McDrive. The most novel thing is the inside kiosk that allows you to passer votre commande (place your order), sidestepping those waiting on line, to pay by CB–carte bancaire (debit card) and then to step up with your receipt to an express window to pick up your order. I’ve read that these are primarily used in France, but you may have seen them in the United States in trial markets.

As for the menu, the culture in France doesn’t support the selections that would be available in America. Breakfast is called le petit déjeuner for a reason. Big breakfasts are not common here; many of our friends don’t eat breakfast at all or only a croissant or pain au chocolat and coffee. Not all McDonald’s are open for breakfast, and the breakfast selections are slim. The local McDonald’s Grenoble L’Aigle only opens at 10 am, but it closes at 1 am. The bulk of McDonald’s business is at lunchtime. The offerings are similar to those I’ve seen advertised on television, with a twist. The Croque McDo is a takeoff of the French Croque Monsieur (think grilled cheese with ham) and les frites are not called french fries! The kids here love the Happy Meal as much as children elsewhere. The website window showing the Happy Meal choices comes with an interesting side note (roughly translated): over 60% of the Happy Meal menus provided do not exceed the energy needs of a child less than six years for a meal. I’m thinking that that refers to the Apports Nutritionnels Conseillés, the French equivalent of the U.S. RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) and that here energy equals calories. This seems interesting in light of the recent obesity-related lawsuits against McDonald’s that have come along in the past years.

Not only do the French McDonald’s have a different menu, you can also get a beer to go with that Big Mac. France is not known for its beer, and what is served, 1664, is not considered to be the crème de la crème (the best), but hey, this is McDonald’s not a true French restaurant!

The company also touts their philanthropic largesse with the opening of the 150th Ronald McDonald House in Paris in 1991 and is proud that in 1968, they airlifted hamburgers into the U.S. Olympic team athletes competing in Grenoble who craved a taste of home. Last summer, a French-made McDonald’s commercial aired that would never be seen in America because of what Don Thompson, the number two executive at McDonald’s, called cultural norms. The ad entitled, Venez comme vous êtes or Come as You Are launched much global controversy as it is an ad campaign intended to “recognize the diversity of McDonald’s customers in France.”

Daily we see and are unperturbed by signs of the different cultural norms of France, but stealing a McDonald’s slogan about our time in France, “We’re loving it!”

Fancy back entrance