Word: chideu
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...things have worked out, Mme. Chideu's prices are lower than they were under the Germans. Beef is one-third less, butter one-fourth less, potatoes one-half less. There are real shortages, and very high prices, for only a few foods...
...cognac et I'amour. In Mme. Chideu's till, the purple-and-green invasion currency brought in by the Allies mingles with old Bank of France notes. At first most shopkeepers worried because the printing on the new currency said only that the money was issued in France, named no guarantor. Now Mme. Chideu and her customers accept the Allied notes without question. Only the higher-ups still fret...
When Mme. Chideu deposits her money, her banker still sorts the invasion currency into one pile, the old Bank of France currency in another. When the Allies landed, they expected to need huge stocks of new currency, hence brought their own. But in Normandy they found the greater part of the local currency available. From vaults deep within the ruins of the Valognes bank they dug up 100 million francs. With that buried treasure, plus what was in people's socks and hands, the Cherbourg area had a normal amount of normal money in circulation...
Prices at Mme. Chideu's shop might have ballooned out of sight if the Allies had dumped all their new notes right away. But the principal holders of the new notes are soldiers, who are too busy fighting to spend money. Towns are usually off limits, so G.I.s and Tommies remain in the countryside, where their bright bank notes raise hell only with prices for cognac and amour. Furthermore, the invading armies bring along almost everything they need and buy only a small amount of local goods...
From Washington last week came news which made no difference to Mme. Chideu, but made a great deal of difference to General Charles de Gaulle and his Liberation Committee. President Roosevelt's qualified recognition of the Gaullist Government included the unqualified admission that the Committee is the sole authority hereafter entitled to issue currency in France...