Cards, ATMs and cash in France: what to expect

France runs on cards. Visa and Mastercard are taken in supermarkets, chain hotels, TGV ticket machines, museum ticket desks, most taxis and the great majority of restaurants and cafés, and contactless taps work for amounts from about €1 upward. You can travel a week in Paris or Lyon without touching a note. The exceptions are small and predictable: some village bakeries and market stalls, a few taxis, and the occasional shop that sets a minimum of €5–10 for card.

Debit and credit cards both work, but the network behind them matters. A card on the Visa or Mastercard network is the safe default. American Express is fine at hotels, department stores and larger restaurants, and patchy at small cafés and grocery shops. If your only card is Amex, carry a second card or more cash.

ATMs (distributeurs automatiques de billets, or DAB) are everywhere in towns and at stations. Use machines built into a bank branch wall during opening hours if you can: if the machine swallows your card, staff are on the other side of the wall. Standalone machines in bars, shops and tourist strips are more likely to add their own fee or offer a poor rate. Most French bank ATMs let you choose English, and many now offer €20 and €50 notes rather than only €50s.

The fee you pay has two parts. The French bank may charge nothing for a foreign card, or a small flat fee; your own bank then adds a foreign transaction fee, commonly 1–3% plus a fixed amount per withdrawal. That is why fewer, larger withdrawals beat many small ones. If your bank charges a fixed fee per withdrawal, take out €200–300 at a time and keep it somewhere safe.

When a terminal or ATM offers to charge you in your home currency — 'pay in USD', 'with conversion' — decline it. That is dynamic currency conversion, and the rate behind it is typically 3–6% worse than your bank's. Choose euros and let your own bank convert.

Cash still has a role. Markets, small producers, tips left on a café table, and the odd cash-only shop are the main uses. €30–50 per person is a sensible float; more if you are heading to rural areas, Corsica or village markets where the nearest ATM may be a drive away. French law requires shops to accept cash, but in practice some small businesses prefer cards, so keep both options.

Tipping is small and usually in cash: coins or a euro or two at a café, 5–10% at a restaurant for good service, rounding up in taxis. Service is included in the bill, so this is optional. See the country money and tipping notes for the full norms.

Two practical points. First, tell your bank you are travelling if it still asks; a blocked card in a foreign country is a slow problem to fix. Second, keep a second card, stored separately from the first, plus a photo of both card numbers. If one is lost or cloned, you can still pay while the replacement is arranged.