Goines On: The E.U. coin zone

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(That’s Sacré-Coeur Basilica in 2021,
out the Goineses‘ apartment window)

Goines cottoned quickly onto shops’ ways of stating prices, alternatively “1€90” or “€1.90,” and he liked being able to use the same coins and currency in both France and Germany.

    He had mastered the size difference between 1-euro and 2-euro coins and between 1-cent and 5-cent coins, the design difference between 1-euro and 50-cent coins, and the shape difference between 1-euro and 20-cent coins. But he wished they’d banish 2-cent coins, which would simplify the task of distinguishing among the relatively insignificant copper-clads.

Goines On: Magic bubbles

Click image for more vignettes
(That’s Sacré-Coeur Basilica in 2021,
out the Goineses‘ apartment window)

Walking along the crowded Rue Poteau toward Monoprix, Goines reflected on the way most Paris walkers and joggers and bikers and skateboarders navigated the city’s fast, busy streets. A biker comes from behind on sidewalks within centimeters of walkers, who might step to one side or the other at any moment, and along curbs beside cars and motorcycles and trucks and buses, which in Paris seem to go as fast as they possibly can without killing anyone or inviting a police intervention.