| @ared: French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion are `overseas departments' and are as much a part of France as Paris is, in the same way that Alaska and Hawaii are no less parts of the USA than the 48 contiguous states. Their inhabitants are French citizens and have full representation in the French parliament. When France decided to use the Euro, these regions were automatically included, just as Paris was. The other bits of French territory have various different statuses and levels of representation in parliament and so on. But they are not integral parts of France in the way that the overseas departments are so it wasn't automatic that they'd use the Euro when France did. Indeed, French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Wallis and Fortuna use a currency called the CFP Franc; CFP stands for `Comptoirs Français du Pacifique', something like `French Pacific Banking System'. |
