The Washington Times writes of the Euro’s lukewarm welcome — especially in Paris:

Although the euro has been used in banking transactions for three years, Parisians greeted the euro’s arrival in cash registers yesterday with a mixture of irritation and puzzlement.

‘It’s monopoly money,’ sneered Franck Lombaard, a 35-year-old limousine security guard, as he sipped coffee in the Cafe du Nord across the street from the train station that links France with Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands. ‘It’s stupid. Why must we have two different currencies at the same time?’ … He was worried about how older people and shopkeepers would cope with the new currency while the old one is slowly taken out of circulation.

A silver-haired man shrugged: ‘I am not euro-friendly, but what choice do I have?’

Two diners, Alexander, 23, and Aurelie, 20, paid in francs, glanced at the euros on the next table and muttered, ‘It’s complicated.’

A waiter threw up his hands when a reporter asked for his check, listed in francs, to be converted to euros. ‘Ooh la la,’ he said. ‘You actually want to pay in euros. I am sad. I’ll have to work it out.’

The waiter did not return.

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