Re: OT: the euro & 01.01.02 (was NATLANG/FONT:)

En réponse à Anton Sherwood <bronto@...>:

>
> When I was in Paris 31 years ago, the "franc leger" was already
> forgotten, as far as I could tell.  It was 5 francs (lourds) to the
> dollar.
>
Officially of course (that's the whole point of a change isn't it?), but in
everyday life everybody was carrying on counting in "anciens francs" (the
terms "franc léger/franc lourd" were short-lived, I must have heard them once
or twice in my life. Everybody says "ancien/nouveau franc"), and plenty of
people still do (including people of my generation! There's a little story
about the French 'Millionaire' - nothing to do with the quizz game, mainly a
scratching game where you can win a participation to a TV program where you
turn a big wheel which can make you win until 1 million francs - where a man of
approximately my age didn't react at all when he won the million. Off stage,
the presentator discovered that the man thought he had won 1 million "anciens
francs", that's to say 10000F! This must be an exception. Personnally I never
ever counted in "ancien franc". I'd be unable to do it anyway).

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.