Exactly ten years ago, the first euro coins and notes began to circulate around Europe. To mark the occasion the newspaper Journal du Dimanche commissioned a poll from Ifop on French attitudes to the single currency. The results are not encouraging for political leaders.

A majority of those polled, almost two-thirds, say the euro is not good for France or for them personally. There is a generational shift underlying this view. Anti-euro feeling is highest among the young. The over-65's are more likely to view the euro positively.

A snapshot of a moment in history:

November 10, 2011.  Global stock markets are falling. The yield on Italian bonds continues to rise.

A German newspaper reports that Chancellor Angela Merkel is going to float the idea of re-writing the rules governing the euro zone at her Christian Democratic Union party meeting next week. At present there is no mechanism for countries inside the euro to leave.

Merkel reportedly wants a new treaty provision that defines the ways in which a nation can leave - or be asked to leave - if it doesn't meet the basic conditions of euro zone membership. You want to know the basic conditions?: an annual budget deficit no higher than 3 percent of GDP and a national debt lower than 60 percent of GDP.  Italy's debt is currently 120% of GDP. Got the picture?