Two good investments to hold in bad times - gold and a railway ticket to Switzerland

Spectator, The, Mar 15, 2003 by Fildes, Christopher

Off piste

The pound has been carried away by an avalanche and may now be entombed in a glacier. Such is the bleak news I bring back from the mountains where I have been searching for traces of the ten-franc kir the exchange rate, as you will recall, at which it becomes economic to drink in France. The chart of this rate, which can be traced through the euro, now looks like the side of an Alp. At 9.5 francs to the pound (the lowest rate for five years) kir drinkers will have to cut back on the olives. I was almost reduced to cadging brandies from passing St Bernards.