People still calculate in non-Euro currency over here

This just cracks me up...but then again, I'm an American not schooled in such things (even though I sometimes say I am German if it benefits me...hey, I'm half right, cause I'm half German)....anyway...so I bought this book about Paris in our local Troc.com, an awesome second-hand store which I blogged about before.  They sometimes have cool old books, but this was a new one.  Okay so this is not about the book.  It's about the receipt.  Yes, the receipt.  You see, everything looks nice and orderly, and in fact, just like an American receipt (except in French), until you get to the very bottom.

The entry I circled in the pic says "484,08 BEF".  So what the heck is that?  Well, if you can believe it or not...it is close to a decade that the Euro currency was brought to Belgium and people still calculate what the thing will cost in Belgian Francs, the previous currency.  That's right.  Especially the older generation.  They absolutely want to know what that thing is worth in Belgian Francs before they buy it, whether it's a book, a piece of furniture or a sack of vegetables.  Nevermind that we haven't had the Belgian Franc in nine years to value it against other world currencies.  It is forever stuck in la-la land.

And before you laugh...the Germans do it too.  In fact, right after the German Deutschmark changed over to Euros, you could still walk into stores and see two price signs and tags.  The Deutschmark price and the Euro price.  Of course you could only pay in Euros but people still wanted to know.  My grandpa, rest his soul cause he had already lost one fortune when the Reichsmark went to the Deutschmark and thought it would happen again....even he continued to do it until his dying day about 12 years ago.  I suspect my aunt still does it too although never out loud these days.

So next time you get your receipt in Europe, take a look at the bottom and see if you can find the old currency.  You just might see it there and impress your friends with this fairly useless bit of knowledge!