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| You are in: | | Front Page > Programmes > World Today > Euro Special |
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Michèle Roberts  | |
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To coincide with the launch of the Single Currency across 12 members of the European Union, The World Today has commissioned seven short original works from leading European writers. | |
 Michèle Roberts: On the Euro | |
I shall be relieved to switch to the Euro. Thinking in one currency, as I commute back and forth between England and France, will be much less bothersome than translating between three. Last year, on the annual summer rally run by my village in the Mayenne, one of the games was converting Euros into Francs and vice versa. I came bottom out of 200 contestants. So things can only improve. Mind you, I was also useless at the games requiring you to identify national flags, the spires of neighbouring churches, and the number of beans in a jar. With only Euros in my pocket, I shall be much happier. French banks have been busy offering their customers special starter packs, to get us used to the sight and feel of the new currency. Household bills have been printed out in Euros for some time. We've all got our pristine Euro cheque books. The French are a pretty laid-back populace; I am sure everyone will just shrug and handle the transition smoothly.  Stall holders in the local markets are expecting the odd spot of trouble from diehards who still think in pre-devaluation terms, in millions rather than thousands of Francs, but all the schoolchildren have learned their citizenship lessons well and will help their parents out. People who've been paid in cash on the black economy, and who've got their savings stashed under their beds, are going to have to do some serious spending this Christmas. And some English tourists have been panicking apparently, trying to get rid of their loose change before diving into the Channel Tunnel. Rather than drop it into charity boxes they are anxiously counting it up. Reports are abroad of foreigners paying their restaurant bills in 20 centime pieces and waiters feeling seriously provoked. I'm going to use up all my small change buying candles in the local church to burn to the miraculous Virgin who is kept there. I shall pray to become really good at economics. | |
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Todays programmes More Essays | |
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