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Paris > Book reviews
> A Year in the Merde > Excerpt 1
 A
Year in the Merde
Book Review - Excerpt 1
Continued from page 1
Paris tipping
"[Jean-Marie] explained that the waiter wanted to cash up now
because, like all the other unionized waiters in Paris-that is, most of the
blokes in black waistcoats, and they are, strangely enough, almost all male--he
was going on strike now, 'thirteen hours.' The middle of lunchtime, just to be
awkward. They were striking because, although French bills almost always
included a 15 percent service charge, waiters also needed tips to make a decent
wage, and since the arrival of the euros, tips had gone down. Before the euro, a
standard lunchtime tip was a10-franc piece, but many people were now leaving a
1-euro piece, which was worth only 6.5 francs. The fact that almost all café
prices had been rounded up during the conversion into euros didn't seem to
compensate."
- A Year in the Merde, by Stephen Clarke
Read Excerpt 2:
The Paris Metro
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