French food focus-About living and cooking in rural France,recipes,lifestyle,comments

I was a bit surprised at a comment my Menu post on e-Gullet received. Something to the effect that what did the relationship between the $ & Pound vis-a-vis the Euro have to do with the price of meals in France.

Thinking about it the commentator was right. It has nothing directly to do with the cost of meals in France.

I didn't make my point clearly. The point was that if you are a tourist from the USA or Britain the exchange rate has made France & its meals far more expensive than last year. Or if you live in France, but your income is in dollars or pounds your cost of living has gone up pretty dramatically over the past year. The 100 Euro meal is now $160 instead of $130 for instance. Live here and multiply all of you expenditure by the same factor & it starts to pinch a bit.

Inflation in Euro terms has also accelerated here in France. Not just gas & diesel, but all kinds of things. ( I still haven't figured out why the price difference between petrol & diesel has almost disappeared. Diesel used to be about 20% cheaper; no more.) Fruit & vegetables have really accelerated. Fish is way up & getting scarcer as the fishermen protest by not going out. Lots of other things are up as well.

A while ago we briefly considered moving back to the states. Our Euro valued house would translate into a lot of dollars, but we rejected the idea. Too many negatives & too far from family.

Anyway, if you are coming to France on vacation let me know & I'll send you the write up I did on how to enjoy France yet save money by doing many of the things the locals do.

In the meantime we'll just ride this out until the currencies regain their common sense.

French Food Focus Latest Post Other Posts - This Month - Last Month Index of Recipes Archives - 2009 - 2008 Links About me About 'My' France		Life in rural France - Food - Friends - Wine - Cheese - Comments Welcome to French Food Focus. The name describes the intent of this blog. I'll focus on food and because I live in rural France the stress will be upon French food. Not that I will limit myself to food only. There are numerous posts concerning life in France, comments on life in general and, certainly, opinions about anything that strikes my fancy. I welcome your comments and promise to publish all of them good & bad so long as they're not offensive, pornographic or rude. If you have some good recipes you'd like to share or if you want to rave about any great French restaurants this is the place to do it. I hope you enjoy my ramblings about rural France!

Comments to: yankinparisot@gmail.com	Cost of Living I was a bit surprised at a comment my Menu post on e-Gullet received. Something to the effect that what did the relationship between the $ & Pound vis-a-vis the Euro have to do with the price of meals in France. Thinking about it the commentator was right. It has nothing directly to do with the cost of meals in France. I didn't make my point clearly. The point was that if you are a tourist from the USA or Britain the exchange rate has made France & its meals far more expensive than last year. Or if you live in France, but your income is in dollars or pounds your cost of living has gone up pretty dramatically over the past year. The 100 Euro meal is now $160 instead of $130 for instance. Live here and multiply all of you expenditure by the same factor & it starts to pinch a bit. Inflation in Euro terms has also accelerated here in France. Not just gas & diesel, but all kinds of things. ( I still haven't figured out why the price difference between petrol & diesel has almost disappeared. Diesel used to be about 20% cheaper; no more.) Fruit & vegetables have really accelerated. Fish is way up & getting scarcer as the fishermen protest by not going out. Lots of other things are up as well. A while ago we briefly considered moving back to the states. Our Euro valued house would translate into a lot of dollars, but we rejected the idea. Too many negatives & too far from family. Anyway, if you are coming to France on vacation let me know & I'll send you the write up I did on how to enjoy France yet save money by doing many of the things the locals do. In the meantime we'll just ride this out until the currencies regain their common sense.