Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do miss the old currencies. They were neat. Still remember paying 1500 lira for a can of coke in Italy.

Suspect EU will fall apart before it grows closer. A lot of their voters are really unhappy with the status quo and the inability of the EU to address their concerns beyond trying to make political parties illegal. It's not a small minority but a substantial one. Re the French poster above, there's a lot of deep unhappiness in France....

French PP here. Are you referring to the German AFD, and neo-Nazi parties in general? Sorry, you're out of line. We're doing our best not to fall into fascism again. You've never lived it. My grandparents and older aunts and uncles lived through WWII. Don't talk about what you don't know.

I’m always fascinated by people who lived through the war. My great grandparents did but I didn’t know them. How old are you that you had aunts and uncles alive at that time?

Also it’s pretty great to see someone in France so invested in an American parenting website mostly geared towards those living in DC. It provides an interesting prospective. Can you tell us about the difference in expectations between French and American grandparents?

Sorry to hijack the thread, OP. The French are just so endlessly interesting to me.

DC is a pretty international place. I am assuming the French pp *is* French, but also a DC area resident.

This might be one of the most American things I've ever heard: "I want a entire continent to change their geo-political structure so that it's not as crowded when I visit once a year." Lol!

No, not at all. I'm from a small country in EU. Any time I want to go further than 500 km, I would need a passport and some local currency.
I had to take 5 foreign languages at school to prepare us to meet our neighbors once the borders opened up, and now somebody wants the borders back.
When I land anywhere in EU, I feel like I'm home or very close to home. I remember when the westerners looked at my countrymen as why they are coming here and how much money we have. Luckily it's not the case anymore. Now I get crap for using the line for foreigners because of my US passport. I would use the EU one if I were late for connection and beg for forgiveness later.
For us, southern EU is still slightly slow or backwards when it comes to IT and then there's the bureaucracy, no need to add visas or currency exchange.

Anonymous wrote:I do miss the old currencies. They were neat. Still remember paying 1500 lira for a can of coke in Italy.

Suspect EU will fall apart before it grows closer. A lot of their voters are really unhappy with the status quo and the inability of the EU to address their concerns beyond trying to make political parties illegal. It's not a small minority but a substantial one. Re the French poster above, there's a lot of deep unhappiness in France....

My magnum ice cream bar was 2000 ITL. Sigh.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do miss the old currencies. They were neat. Still remember paying 1500 lira for a can of coke in Italy.

Suspect EU will fall apart before it grows closer. A lot of their voters are really unhappy with the status quo and the inability of the EU to address their concerns beyond trying to make political parties illegal. It's not a small minority but a substantial one. Re the French poster above, there's a lot of deep unhappiness in France....

French PP here. Are you referring to the German AFD, and neo-Nazi parties in general? Sorry, you're out of line. We're doing our best not to fall into fascism again. You've never lived it. My grandparents and older aunts and uncles lived through WWII. Don't talk about what you don't know.

I’m always fascinated by people who lived through the war. My great grandparents did but I didn’t know them. How old are you that you had aunts and uncles alive at that time?

Also it’s pretty great to see someone in France so invested in an American parenting website mostly geared towards those living in DC. It provides an interesting prospective. Can you tell us about the difference in expectations between French and American grandparents?

Sorry to hijack the thread, OP. The French are just so endlessly interesting to me.

Anonymous wrote:I do miss the old currencies. They were neat. Still remember paying 1500 lira for a can of coke in Italy.

Suspect EU will fall apart before it grows closer. A lot of their voters are really unhappy with the status quo and the inability of the EU to address their concerns beyond trying to make political parties illegal. It's not a small minority but a substantial one. Re the French poster above, there's a lot of deep unhappiness in France....

French PP here. Are you referring to the German AFD, and neo-Nazi parties in general? Sorry, you're out of line. We're doing our best not to fall into fascism again. You've never lived it. My grandparents and older aunts and uncles lived through WWII. Don't talk about what you don't know.

I really don’t think the eu is why places are crowded. It was hardly a hassle before to convert more currency and go to more border countrols. I think you have social media as well as the relative cheapness of flights vs years ago. We used to go on family trips to Europe in the 80s and early 90s, and what those tickets would cost in today’s dollars is crazy. I think the ease of planning on the internet has also contributed. I remember my dad having to spend days booking individual flights by calling all of the different airlines to compare, then calling back to see what was available and finally booking. Hotels were another pain. It was a ton of time consuming work that can now be done in a few clicks.

Anonymous wrote:I do miss the old currencies. They were neat. Still remember paying 1500 lira for a can of coke in Italy.

Suspect EU will fall apart before it grows closer. A lot of their voters are really unhappy with the status quo and the inability of the EU to address their concerns beyond trying to make political parties illegal. It's not a small minority but a substantial one. Re the French poster above, there's a lot of deep unhappiness in France....

It won't fall apart (it's in the constitutions of each member state), at most it will be less effective. For example, they'll have difficulty on agreeing on EU-wide stances. That's already the case -- they can't even get a proper vote to agree on giving weapons to Ukraine, even though the war is at EU's neighbor and directly threatens the EU.

I lived in a now-EU country while it wasn't in EU, then also while they joined the EU. It made no difference. Our pre-EU passports allowed us to travel all around Europe anyway.

As for currencies (my country joined the euro currency a few years after EU accession), that was at most a minor annoyance, and that was some years ago. Now it's no friction at all, since everyone pays by card.

I do miss the old currencies. They were neat. Still remember paying 1500 lira for a can of coke in Italy.

Suspect EU will fall apart before it grows closer. A lot of their voters are really unhappy with the status quo and the inability of the EU to address their concerns beyond trying to make political parties illegal. It's not a small minority but a substantial one. Re the French poster above, there's a lot of deep unhappiness in France....

People with money and insta influencers will still go no matter what.

NO.

I'm French. It's in the interests of Europeans to work towards a closer union, really a federation, like the US. I hope that at some point the European Union will become one nation, and I don't care what language it speaks. It will be in a much stronger position to negotiate trade deals and oversee its defense on the global stage when it reaches that state.

It's not happening in my lifetime, but this is the vision of certain of its progressive politicians. Let's hope the ultra-right nationalists don't win.

Yes, it is selfish to wish for a regressive time just to visit certain places. Do I want to stroll through Venice and Florence without the hordes? Of course I do. The only time I have ever walked through an empty Louvre was during the Covid lockdown Don't wish for those things again. We can find other ways to control traffic and visitors.

Anonymous wrote:Stop going to just the touristy destinations. You're missing out on a lot of great parts of Europe.

I’ve been to many tourist and non-tourist destinations. Agree it’s worth getting off the beaten path. But some places are super popular for good reason and it’s a shame not to be able to visit them any more.

Stop going to just the touristy destinations. You're missing out on a lot of great parts of Europe.

Anyone else kind of wish Europe would switch back to individual currencies and border controls for each country? Purely selfish reasons. It’s far too crowded in many parts these days and I feel like this would clear out the travellers who aren’t willing or capable of dealing with a bit of bureaucracy and maths or planning in advance.