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BklynSoFar,
maybe I should have said a one-year-old then!
not sure if I have understood your currency question. Are you worried that you buy something on your debit card for eur25 (about $35) and when you get home, you see a $100 charge on your statement?
If so, you shouldn’t – the clearing system should give you pretty close to the spot rate (definitely much closer than a currency exchange shop). Of course, the spot rates might change a little while you are there but certainly shouldn’t vary to that degree.
If you are worried about it, save all of your debit card receipts and tick them off your statement when you get back. Divide the statement amount in dollars by the debit card receipt amount in euros – and you should get close to the spot rate (currently 1.42). Any differences and you can query it with your bank.
If this still worries you (or you would rather set yourself a spending budget) then take the money in cash from an ATM. Decide what your budget is and divide by the spot rate and that is how many euros you need to get out. Note that your bank will have a preset daily limit to how much cash you can take out so you may need to spread this over several days.
Again, keep the receipts of money withdrawn and then compare to your statement when you get back.
Hope this was what you were asking?
I mean blog.
What,
A belated welcome back from me. While I think I disagree with your perspective on this site, I appreciate the way you expressed it today. Whether you hang out here or not, I wish you well. If you do engage here, I will try to keep it civil and i hope you will, too. I respect that, for you, some of the issues you raise run deep, whether I can make sense of how you get to your views or not. But for your own sake, I hope you will walk away and take a breather if it starts making you feel crazy. It’s just a log.
Peace.
Chicken, thank you so much. And you know what, the 2-year-olds over there speak very good French so you are doing great!
I have another question about currency but will ask you later because I am so tired now :-). Thanks for your time.
Well, it is actually like this: if we use our debit cards there, say something costs 25 euros. Then would we maybe find something like 100 taken out of our account when we get home — as in they took our value to theirs? I don’t think I am saying that exactly correct. My friend from Sweden assures me that would happen this year, even though she is abroad right now. She said to not use the debit cards now for that reason.
Had a nap but still jetlagged so I popped in to check out the updates.
I’ve only been to France a handful of times, mainly for business so mostly in Paris, so I am far from the best person to ask about it. I posted the chateaux website simply because they are so “reasonably” priced.
Provence is a very popular place for brits to “summer” so the property prices there are relatively high. My french is about the level of a 2 year old but the I have never encountered the stereotype of them disliking people speaking english – might be different if you are actually living there. Since they are fluent then they won’t have this issue – and will probably endear them to the locals anywhere there.
One general thing I noticed about France is that the roads are much less congested than UK or US so it’s definitely possible to live further away from a city if you have to commute. A friend of mine drives 60km each way to work every day (although he does get his petrol paid for by his employers).
Best of luck to your brother and his wife – it’s a big move and I’m sure they are very excited!
Chicken–don’t know if you are reading OT this late, but if yes, I’ll check this thread over the weekend. You may have the experience to answer this: my brother and spouse are planning a move to France and going for an exploratory trip in 2 weeks. They are thinking Montpelier, because it is in the “middle” of the south so maybe not as expensive as Provence. Do you know anything about where to move in France? Once you posted a French chateaux real estate site. I emailed it to them (:-)- knowing they cannot afford a chateau, but they liked the site. Then later brother says *maybe* Aix-en-Provence, where he has lived before, but it is more crowded now and those pollution towers 25 miles(?) from Aix. I don’t think they can afford Aix anyway. Any ideas about a city? Then of course when one chooses a city, one has to find the neighborhood, the block, etc. Oh, vey!Both are fluent.
Perfect, I’m going to slide down the dinosaur and hop on the Biffmobile very soon.
Biff, they’re now saying on NPR that the rain won’t hit until late this evening.
As we know….Those terms are used loosely! It’s Windsor Terrace to me, but I think Smith Street is Boerum Hill too!
There are a lot of restaurants and it’s an easy walk to the Park – two blocks?, which is great. The movie theater is there at Bartel-Pritchard Square – which is 15th St? [Going from memory]. A friend had a humungous 2 bedroom apt. over there for a time. Depends on what your friend wants. PPW over there has some shopping. It used to be working class Irish years ago. I imagine it’s more yuppie/families now.