GR 215: Milliards of francs

[Paul Cray]

Jochen,

thanks for this. The sentence "For that evening he was a millionaire!" made
a great impression on me as a lad of 13 or 14, one that has stayed with me
for nearly 40 years.

Paul

On Sun, 29 Mar 2020 at 02:32, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:

> First the Bond:
>
> James Bond idled through the pretty approaches to Royale, through the
> young beeches and the heavy-scented pines, looking forward to the evening
> and remembering his other annual pilgrimages to this place and,
> particularly, the great battle across the baize he had had with Le Chiffre
> so many years ago. He had come a long way since then, dodged many bullets
> and much death and loved many girls, but there had been a drama and a
> poignancy about that particular adventure that every year drew him back to
> Royale and its casino and to the small granite cross in the little
> churchyard that simply said 'Vesper Lynd. RIP.'
>
> And now what was the place holding for him on this beautiful September
> evening? A big win? A painful loss? A beautiful girl - that beautiful girl?
>
> To think first of the game. This was the week-end of the 'clôture
> annuelle'. Tonight, this very Saturday night, the Casino Royale was holding
> its last night of the season. It was always a big event and there would be
> pilgrims even from Belgium and Holland, as well as the rich regulars from
> Paris and Lille. In addition, the ' Syndicat d'lnitiative et des Bains de
> Mer de Royale' traditionally threw open its doors to all its local
> contractors and suppliers, and there was free champagne and a great
> groaning buffet to reward the town people for their work during the season.
> It was a tremendous carouse that rarely finished before breakfast time. The
> tables would be packed and there would be a very high game indeed.
>
> Bond had one million francs of private capital - Old Francs, of course -
> about seven hundred pounds' worth. He always reckoned his private funds in
> Old Francs. It made him feel so rich. On the other hand, he made out his
> official expenses in New Francs because that made them look smaller - but
> probably not to the Chief Accountant at Headquarters! One million francs!
> For that evening he was a millionaire! Alight he so remain by tomorrow
> morning!
>
> And now he was coming into the Promenade des Anglais and there was the
> bastard Empire frontage of the Hotel Splendide. And there, by God, on the
> gravel sweep alongside its steps, stood the little white Lancia and, at
> this moment a bagagiste, in a striped waistcoat and green apron, was
> carrying two Vuitton suitcases up the steps to the entrance!
>
> So!
>
> James Bond slid his car into the million-pound line of cars in the car
> park, told the same bagagiste, who was now taking rich, small stuff out of
> the Lancia, to bring up his bags, and went in to the reception-desk. The
> manager impressively took over from the clerk and greeted Bond with
> golden-toothed effusion, while making a mental note to earn a good mark
> with the Chef de Police by reporting Bond's arrival, so that the Chef
> could, in his turn, make a good mark with the Deuxieme and the SDT by
> putting the news on the teleprinter to Paris.
>
> Bond said, 'By the way, Monsieur Maurice. Who is the lady who has just
> driven up in the white Lancia? She is staying here?'
>
> You were right, Paul, it's from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the
> second chapter "Gran Turismo".
>
> And Mark was right, too. The last use listed in the OED (my edition is
> from 1991) is DEUTSCH (Literary Remains of the late ...), published 1874
> (where he, Emanuel Deutsch, speaks of "the untold milliards of human beings
> [that] go to hell"). Quite the ironist, Deutsch.
>
> But it was used a lot even much later than 1874 as searching for it in the
> www can tell you.
>
>
> Am So., 29. März 2020 um 00:44 Uhr schrieb Paul Cray <pmcray at gmail.com>:
> >
> > Thanks, Mark!
> >
> > Which OED edition do you have access to? I would be surprised if there
> were
> > no uses of the word in C20th. I wonder where Pynchon came from across the
> > word. The passage suggests it might be directly from the French, but, of
> > course he could easily have come across it somewhere else. It's the kind
> of
> > word that might crop up in early/mid-century scientific world or sf.
> >
> > Recall, natch, the old franc.
> >
> > "In 1960, the new franc (*nouveau franc*) was introduced,[22]
> > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_franc#cite_note-24> worth 100 old
> > francs."
> >
> > There is a James Bond novel I recall reading (probably "On Her Majesty's
> > Secret Service") in which Bond is at a casino and thinks for tonight I
> will
> > think in old francs and be a millionaire. A million old francs is 10,000
> > new ones or ~£1000, which would be ~$2500 in the early 1960s. A milliard
> > old francs would then be $2.5M roughly.
> >
> > Paul
> >
> > On Sat, 28 Mar 2020 at 21:06, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > At your service.
> > >
> > > French root as we know....defined in the OED as a thousand million.
> > >
> > > Earliest citation in English is 1793,,,,in which 'regal and
> > > ecclesiastical plunder"is said
> > > to be four milliards.
> > >
> > > Byron used it in 1803 and last use is DEUTSCH...1879...
>
>