It has been very interesting to see how the currency in France differs from that of the United States and other countries. In most of our travels we have used the euros. We did convert euros to swiss francs for our trip to Switzerland. The swiss franc converted to close to the same as the euro, but a little more (1 EUR to 1.13 CHF). The euro is currently stronger than the U.S. dollar meaning we get less euros when converted. Therefore, France’s currency buys more of a foreign country’s goods. The conversion rate is currently 1 USD to 0.887741 EUR.
We have not run into many problems with French currency. For our travels, we were happy to learn that most of Europe uses the euro. Even in Switzerland, where the swiss franc is dominate, they accepted euros as well.
It has been fun learning to handle and use another currency. I have learned to pay more attention to change because you receive up to 2 euros in coins. I often forget I have more money than I think because I do not count my change often!
Overall, I’ve enjoyed using the euro. I think that the sizing of the currency helps to more easily determine the value of each piece. I am going to miss using euros when I return to the Untied States.