... and stolen cars and old currency

According to a calculation by a pet food manufacturer the average dog owner in France spends €540 annually on his pet; a report in The Times a few months back said keeping a pooch in the UK costs “around £1000 a year”. That puzzles us a bit. Canines here seem pretty spoilt. Elsewhere in this issue we write about La Poste and its imminent confrontation with competition for all mail services. It already has to compete with other operators for parcels business. So who’s best? You can find out at a www.envoimoinscher.com, indicating the size, weight, content and destination of your parcel. Charges vary by up to 40 per cent.

AutoExpress has listed the cars most commonly stolen in France. The top five are the Smart Fortwo, Renault Twingo, Peugeot 306, Renault Clio and the Audi A3. Rollers, Jags and other Top Marques are much more rarely stolen. Why? “Simple,” says the magazine, “those classy cars are usually kept in a garage. The humbler vehicles more often get parked on the street, including overnight.” And finally: you find some of those old franc notes at the back of a drawer. What can you do with them? Until 2012 you can go to the Banque de France and change them into euros (no coins, though: they’ve only get scrap metal value). But there’s another solution. Most of the businesses in Collobrières – a pétanque-and pastis-style village in the Var with a population of 1600 (40 km from Saint-Tropez, 150 km from Nice) – have decided to accept franc notes, at the official exchange rate, and business has been booming. This summer Abbéville in Normandy tried the same thing for a couple of weeks. According to one local shopkeeper, “It’s amazing how many Brits have come in with that old paper.” Hmm ... Maybe it’s worth having a look at the back of those drawers.

From Riviera Reporter Issue 129: Oct/Nov 2008

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