Also, if the French bonds go berserk, going back to their old currency doesn't make those bonds go away. Telling the creditors to pound sand is a strategy, but then nobody will lend them anything at all. Any European country that talks about going back to their old currency, is PROBABLY going to print money and dump it on their populous, in order to get EUR, or USD, or whatever is the currency their actual bonds are denominated in, and pay them.

That every full on hyperinflation scenario in the past century has been exactly that dynamic.

So in this regard, EUR is protecting the people from themselves. It'd be better if it was XAU but that's a digression...

The other problem with exiting the EU is then each state is gonna get treated like some South American joke country by Russia, China, etc. And nobody wants to end up negotiating like that.