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PARIS — A digital clock on the Paris Bourse (stock exchange) counts down the days till the introduction of the Euro, as did the Eiffel Tower in its march to the year 2000. France in the meantime savors the summer — the warm weather, the long daylight, and the holidays.
Naturally during summer, most political woes are pushed aside in favor of the wistful holidays. Vacation — the traditionally long French holidays are viewed with not only as a necessity but a truly cultural rite. "En Vacances" is pronounced with an almost religious intonation — something that one must do for proper salvation if not from work, for one's sanity.
Though the French have traditionally traveled inside their own country, there's a genuine penchant today to go everywhere from Turkey to Tahiti. Especially during August, Paris is much quieter — literally every second shop and many restaurants are closed for a full month. Even the traffic, which seems to view the wide Parisian boulevards as a private urban test track for the Le Mans Grand Prix, appears slightly subdued.
Paris, as with New York, often moves at warp speed. But then of course, there's the rest of France to be comfortably savored at a slower pace, as one would view a proper menu on a Sunday afternoon.
Nonetheless, the cellphone and the ubiquitous cigarettes seem to define Parisian life as much as the croissant and baguette. The fact is that cell phones are de rigeur everywhere from the TGV bullet train to most restaurants. Mobiles are not something just for the youth and businessmen as senior citizens sport the cellular too, out of all proportions to what we see stateside.
Scandals in City Hall are magnified too — after all the Mayor of Paris stands as a luminary not only of the capital but also equally of a centralized system where Paris dominates the rest of the country. After years of good stewardship under Jacques Chirac the system under his hand picked successors subsequently evolved into a shambles of Clintonian sleaze where favors and corruption became commonplace. The result was a predictable backlash in which the Socialists captured City Hall earlier this year for a first time in a century.
Naturally France faces the pull of what the intellectuals call Americanization or more recently globalization — something which is accepted as a love hate relationship. I have sufficient experience over the years to pronounce that while many will lambast the influence of Hollywood, (and often rightly so) the bottom line at the box office shows that movies made in the USA win over the crowds hands down. This summer Shrek and Dr. Doolittle II rule. France's Cinema has long been lost to foreign films despite some notable exceptions.
What worries most people however concerns not cinema but their currency. The impending introduction of the Euro at the end of the year has produced a subtle kind of stress, a bit like awaiting Y2K. Clearly the currency conversion scheme shall herald a new era for the Old World. Though there's no doubt the Euro will certainly benefit intra-European commerce for large firms, most French are far less convinced that having the same currency as Greece or Spain is really beneficial.
As planned, the venerable Franc (and Mark and Guilder, etc.) will briefly be used in parallel with the Euro before the changeover is complete in February. Predictacly most people are nervous, but the political class speaks of the Euro with a quasi-religious conviction. Already store receipts present the bill in both Francs and Euros.
The European Union despite all the sonorous hype about the Euro, has failed to produce the enthusiasm of the World Football (Soccer) Cup or the Olympics. One ponders whether the Brussels bureaucrats will yet contemplate fielding an EU Olympic Team or an EU Soccer team to replace the powerhouses of France, Germany, or Italy?
France doesn't fear economic globalization as much as she does the encroaching social homogenization of her unique culture (as do most other EU nations!). The Franc despite its faults, was one of those things many will miss.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.
