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Post by bjd on Jan 25, 2023 13:48:57 GMT
Your bank story reminds me of a time I was in Paris with my sister. We were near Opéra and took some money from the ATM. The bills were too big so we went into the big Société Générale branch right beside the opera house. We stood in line for the teller behind a black woman with a big shopping bag. She looked like a cleaning lady. When she got to the teller, she reached in her bag and started pulling out wads of bank notes, bundles of euro bills... The teller didn't bat an eye but we certainly looked poor with our miserable 50€ bills we wanted to change for smaller ones. I did ask the teller if she was typical and he said 'no'.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 25, 2023 14:11:42 GMT
I had to walk up the Champs Elysées once to the company bank with an envelope containing 2 million francs in cash (payment by an agency for several charter flights, a totally illegal cash operation). Everybody refused to go to the bank, and the bank refused to send anybody, so I ended up going. I felt as though the envelope had become completely transparent out on the street. (It was about 500 metres.) Then the bank underlings bawled me out for not having been warned of the operation because it took awhile to run all the bills through the counting machine and nobody wanted to do it. Nobody has any interest in money when it isn't theirs, just as I didn't care when two 500-franc notes were spit out because they were counterfeit.
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Post by fumobici on Jan 25, 2023 16:29:26 GMT
In Italy, to go into a bank requires you pass through double doors or a revolving door with access controlled from inside all surrounded by what I assume to be bullet-proof glass.
In the enviably crime-free US, just anyone can stroll right into any bank any time they are open.
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Post by fumobici on Jan 25, 2023 16:32:19 GMT
Your bank story reminds me of a time I was in Paris with my sister. We were near Opéra and took some money from the ATM. The bills were too big so we went into the big Société Générale branch right beside the opera house. We stood in line for the teller behind a black woman with a big shopping bag. She looked like a cleaning lady. When she got to the teller, she reached in her bag and started pulling out wads of bank notes, bundles of euro bills... The teller didn't bat an eye but we certainly looked poor with our miserable 50€ bills we wanted to change for smaller ones. I did ask the teller if she was typical and he said 'no'. She probably runs a cash business catering to immigrants who are less familiar with modern payment methods. A friend of mine ran a bar that was cash-only and after a weekend evening he would have a big bag full of cash to deposit. I expect that is a dying practice today.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 25, 2023 17:26:00 GMT
I kind of worry about what beggars are going to do when cash has disappeared (and luncheon vouchers and things like that). No, I am not really worried. I am just wondering how they are going to get around it.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 28, 2023 14:31:11 GMT
I know that Paris is totally overloaded with tourists for the holiday weekend because I already saw it in the centre this morning but now even my own non-touristy neighbourhood is full up. I saw group after group of teens either coming out of the metro or walking from Gare du Nord to the Yves Robert hostel which holds 332 people. They're probably wondering why they can't see the Eiffel Tower. And of course there are a dozen other (very) modest hotels here as well as two fancy ones. And since the 18th arrondissement is the part of Paris with the most AirBnbs, there must be a lot of those people too.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 28, 2023 14:57:51 GMT
In the past we used to have hoards of European schoolchildren in the city at this time of year hanging around the colleges and grammar school, occasionally wandering around the city centre or being ferried about on coaches. They are usually better dressed, better looking and more sophosticated than our own students....not seen any at all this year.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 28, 2023 15:40:49 GMT
Younger EU citizens often only have a national identity card and not yet a passport, so they cannot visit the UK. This week, however, Jersey signed an agreement to allow just ID cards because their tourism had crashed more than 70%.
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Post by bjd on Apr 28, 2023 18:50:17 GMT
Loads of Spanish tourists in Biarritz and Bayonne recently during Holy Week, as well as Spanish school groups today.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 28, 2023 19:30:06 GMT
I both love and hate the school groups. They are very disruptive, but it is very important to see different parts of Europe (or the world) at that age.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 28, 2023 20:38:03 GMT
Hohum. Just ordered a new gas boiler. Total disruption I expect.
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Post by monetsmum on Apr 30, 2023 8:18:42 GMT
In the past we used to have hoards of European schoolchildren in the city at this time of year hanging around the colleges and grammar school, occasionally wandering around the city centre or being ferried about on coaches. They are usually better dressed, better looking and more sophosticated than our own students....not seen any at all this year. I read a couple of weeks ago that European students are choosing to go to Ireland instead of the UK. Another Brexit bonus...not!
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 30, 2023 13:43:37 GMT
Yes, obviously for the English language programmes, Ireland is now preferred. But southern England still has an attraction even though it is more complicated now.
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