TheBoySaunders.com

Having just returned from a very entertaining mini-holiday in Paris, two things grabbed my attention. The first was this picture (or one very similar) seen at the top of l’Arc de Triomphe and dated 1871:

Being a simple sort, I hadn’t realised that Paris was decimated like this so late into the Nineteenth Century. A little research showed that this photograph came from the Siege of Paris from the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). This was the conflict which led to the eventual unification of Germany, the end of the Napoleonic dynasty and the surrender of the Alsace-Lorraine region, all of which would eventually culminate in the World Wars of the Twentieth Century (which, essentially were just one war with a twenty year teabreak).

My ignorance not being particularly newsworthy in itself, I was tickled by a menu that appeared around Paris during the siege. This demonstarted the peculiarly Gallic ability to - how to put this delicately - polish a turd. Dishes like Cuissot de Loup, Sauce Chevreuil, Terrine d’Antilope aux truffes, Civet de Kangourou and Chameau rôti à l’anglaise sound appealing in a European kind of way, until you realise that they were a by-product of the culling of the local zoo for meat and were, respectively, Haunch of Wolf with a Deer Sauce, Terrine of Antelope with Truffles, Kangaroo Stew and Camel roasted à l’anglaise. Even the local elephants were not spared with a contemporary source observing:

Yesterday, I had a slice of Pollux for dinner. Pollux and his brother Castor are two elephants, which have been killed. It was tough, coarse, and oily, and I do not recommend English families to eat elephant as long as they can get beef or mutton.

For a nation that already eats snails, horse and Foie Gras, or course, Elephant isn’t such a big jump but, hey, I get my entertainment where I can.

The other thought that spung immediately to mind upon arrival in Paris was ‘Good Gravy, everything’s jolly expensive here’ (or similar), which was, no doubt, due to the sorry state that the sterling currently finds itself in. Whereas for years we could count on a fairly steady conversion rate of 60p to the €, the current exchange rate is hovering around the 90p mark. But… seeing as the sterling is presently so royally screwed… and that the conversion rate is, pretty much 1:1… is there really any good reason not to join the single currency now? I mean, if people are seriously worried about ‘eroding our national heritage’ (or whatever retarded excuse for rampant short-sightedness and xenophobia the Daily Mail is pushing this week) can’t we just mint our own British version to run in parallel - cue rousing chorus of ‘God Save the Queen’ - and call it the Euro-pound?

Granted, my knowledge of economics is even worse that my knowlege of history, but it might placate a few of the dissenting crusties until they shuffle off this mortal coil. And, the way things are going with the World Economy, before too long, perhaps all of us will need to know the going rate in Euro-pounds for a slice of freshly slaughtered zoo creature…

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Politics, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.