Europe gas prices

The following probably won’t make you enjoy filling your gas tank here in the States, but it may ease the pain a tiny bit.

In May of 2005, my wife, Josie, and I paid the following for gasoline, converted to dollars per gallon from euros per liter: $5.97 at a Shell station in France; $5.83 in a supermarket lot in France; $6.18 at an Esso station in Italy, and $4.69 in Switzerland.

Even though gas was cheapest in Switzerland, everything else was so high that it more than canceled out the savings on gas.

Luckily, our leased Peugeot got over 30 miles per gallon. Forget driving an SUV; it would be impossible to find a parking spot for it, anyway.

DON KINSER
Alameda, CA