A commotion broke out in the long queue of people waiting to survey Paris's night sky from the top of the Eiffel Tower. After queuing for almost an hour in the freezing cold, some tourists had only just noticed the signs by the ticket booths - 'Payment in euros only'

'This is incredible; the franc is legal tender until 17 February,' one woman shrieked before marching over to the long line to change francs into euros. 'This is the Eiffel Tower, so how come they don't accept francs?'

For Paris's most famous landmark, the changeover to the euro was a fait accompli as soon as the New Year was rung in, the supposed transition period to use up old currency dismissed with little more than a Gallic shrug. Though miniature replicas of the Eiffel Tower could be bought at its base for five francs, the price to climb the real thing was quoted in a single currency - €9.9.

There was some questioning from Brits in the queue about how much that was in sterling, along with murmuring about how much easier it had been to divide the number of francs by 10 to get its value in pounds.

Unwilling to queue to change money, I slunk off to find somewhere else to spend my last francs. It's estimated that every family has between £5 and £10 of foreign currency lurking in drawers at home; mine bought me a meal on the Champs Elysées, much to the disgust of a French woman who whispered as I counted out the familiar coins: 'Pay in euros, madame - after all, it's the New Year.'

Then it was time really to get to grips with the euro, hunting, like everyone else, for the right denomination through palmfuls of coins so new and shiny they could have been chocolate money out of a Christmas stocking and flicking through wadges of crisp, colourful notes rather like Monopoly money.

My first euroland dilemma came with my check in to Paris's Hotel Rafael. As the bell- boy led the way into rooms overflowing with brocaded curtains, the question of how much to tip raised its head. No longer in possession of that handy tipping tool, the 10-franc piece (worth about £1), I had to choose between the somewhat stingy one euro coin (about 60p) or the highly inflationary two euro coin tip, though the sheer luxury of the place meant it was the higher-valued coin that found its way into the bellboy's palm.

The dilemma, say euro detractors, is a typical problem and not always one which comes with a choice - rounding up the cost of goods and services into the nearest euro is almost inevitable. But as I headed off on a whistlestop train tour from Paris to Amsterdam via Brussels, it became clearer that this was a small price to pay against the overwhelming advantage of having one currency in use from Madrid to Martinique.

Forget nostalgia for the old currencies. A single currency spells the end of bundling up little handfuls of coins and the odd note as each country's border is passed; you can now cross most of mainland Europe without worrying about mixing up currencies or carting little bags of unused coins around.

'Though you don't have to pay commission at home when you change currency now, you do get a worse rate, so I prefer to keep it,' Karen Bryan, travelling from Stirling in Scotland with her family, had told me in Paris. 'We are going to Dublin in February so we can use any leftover euros then.'

Getting more of a hang of converting euros into pounds with every mile the train covered, I didn't have to contend with converting Belgian francs into sterling for my 90-minute stopover in Brussels (how many people know the number there are to a pound, anyway?).

It was all too easy to buy a box of Godiva chocolates, which seemed pretty good value at €18.71 for 500 grammes, especially next to its price in Belgian francs of 755. Though dual prices are still on show in most shops, the more you travel through euroland, the more euro-friendly you become.

A major plus point is that you're less likely to be caught short - with a fistful of euros, you don't need to worry about changing money to nip into the loo. In Brussels's station, not only did I have the right coins at the ready, but I could easily see that the €0.25 cost was a snip compared with Paris's Gare du Nord at €1.

Perhaps it was only confirmation of what we all already know - that Paris is one of the more expensive European cities - but travelling across borders with prices in the same denomination is an eye-opener.

Eating a bowl of soup in Amsterdam, I realise that, at €4.49, it was almost half the €7.90 my soup cost in Paris the previous day. Which made it a whole lot tastier. Even the Big Mac, that oft-quoted measure of inflation by economists, cost €2.60 in Amsterdam but €2.95 in Paris.

Whether this sort of price transparency and competition among Eurozone countries will fulfil euro supporters' predictions of lower prices in the long term remains to be seen. For the moment, they, at least, provide an added diversion to walking along the streets of a different country.

But the best bit about the euro was yet to come. On the homeward journey, there was no longer the need for one last dash to buy something I didn't want just to use up spare coins. With the euro legal tender in so many countries and starting to be accepted in Britain, I could return home with purses and pockets full of clinking coins, ready to go off again.

Euro facts

· The euro is the official currency in 12 Eurozone countries of Austria, Finland, France, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

· It is also being adopted in Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, the Vatican, Kosovo, Montenegro, and overseas territories such as French Guiana, Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, La Réunion in the Indian Ocean and Spain's Ceuta and Melillia in North Africa.

· Britain, Denmark and Sweden are the only EU countries not to have joined, though many UK shops accept the euro.

· Most countries will continue to use their old currencies alongside the euro until 28 February, although the transition period is shorter in France (17 February), Ireland (9 February) and the Netherlands (28 January). After that time, old notes can be exchanged at banks.

· You can change notes at UK banks until 28 February. Coins can be donated to charity at banks, post offices and travel agents.

· The euro is worth about 60p at present. It is divided into 100 cents, with coins in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents, plus €1 and €2 pieces. Designs are specific to the country in which they are issued but can be used across the Eurozone. The notes are in denominations of 500, 200, 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5 euros.

· More information is available from the Foreign Office, the Association of British Travel Agents and the European Central Bank.

Factfile

Jane Knight travelled with short-break specialist Travelscene (020 8424 9648), which can tailor-make breaks in Europe. Twin-centre breaks with one night in the Hotel Raphael in Paris and one night at the Port Van Cleve in Amsterdam start from £397 per person, bed and breakfast, including Eurostar return travel from Waterloo International and rail travel between Paris and Amsterdam. Three-star hotel breaks in Paris for two nights start at £146 bed and breakfast, including rail travel.