What really unites Europe!

Do you want to know when Europeans feel the most united? When they hear the European anthem? When they pay with a Euro bill? When they hear that the European parliament passed a new law?! All wrong! It's when they play the Euromillion, a European lottery with much higher stakes than local ones! Tonight, each of the inhabitants of 9 European countries can take part in it (well the ones who bought a ticket!) expecting to win no less than... 114 million Euros. And, yes, since you're asking, I'm one of them. I'm not too confident though... there is only 1 chance in 76 million!! If I do win, I promise to keep doing Paris Daily Photo...just from a nicer computer...

The old lady has a new dye!

Some of you mentioned it already in yesterday's comments (I guess it's been pretty much everywhere in the news), on June 30 at 11 pm the Eiffel Tower turned blue and grew 12 yellow stars... Why? Because those are the colors of the European flag and because France is to take its presidency for 6 months (FYI, there is no actual European President - yet? - but a pretty complicated organization...). Cool idea (the blue Eiffel Tower) I must say and very much appreciated by Parisians - and tourists - apparently. Talking about Europe, I'm heading to Brussels for the next two days, I'll try to keep in touch with you, but it's not going to be easy...

Europe Anniversary

Yesterday was the European Union's 50th anniversary. That is to say, the anniversary of the Rome treaty signed by Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg in 1957. Now, there are 27 countries within the union, a common currency (the Euro), the borders have almost disappeared and, it produces 30,30 % of the world's GDP (2005). Not bad for countries that used to be constantly at war! Alas, since France and the Netherlands rejected the proposed constitution 2 years ago, this beautiful project is not without it's problems...