ATMs

Anymore, it is hard to tell. I pretty much assume there will be a fee, it is a nice surprise if there is not. I do not recall much about ATMs in France to point to ones I found with no fees, but more and more Bank ATMs are charging fees, and since your card tags you as a visitor, there may be a fee for you, but not a local. Euronet ATMS, which seem to be all over tourist areas will always have a fee, since they are a private operation.

If you are not aware of DCC, read up on it, or I can explain, but that is where they offer to do the currency conversion for you, at a high rate. Decline any offer and proceed with the transaction in euros.

Good news is, you are better off using your credit card as contactless payment (or your phone), that is accepted to the point that you may only need to do one or two withdrawals for the trip, reducing the impact of fees. So anymore, I suggest trying a convenient ATM, even if it charges you a few euro, get a 100 euro or so, that may be all you need.

Bank ATMS and post office ATMS in France don't charge a fee; the fee will be from your bank so find out what your bank charges. We dropped BOA decades ago because of their high fees and now use a local bank that not only doesn't charge us a fee but pays the fee if a foreign ATM charges one (private ones sometimes do). (I know BOA dropped the fee if you use their partner banks but that was only after a lot of pushback -- they were charging $5 a transaction when we decided to pull all our money out of their banks)

The trap is when they ask you to agree to a conversion percent -- this is always a grift and always say no to this. It is like when stores like Galaries Lafayette offer to charge you in dollars. Naively any of us might reason 'well my card is on an American bank so that makes sense' -- -what it is is the store taking a heft cut of the exchange. Always say no to this and select payment in Euros -- that way you only lose on one conversion at the bank rate. This is VERY common in Spain but I noticed in the last few years that lots of French stores are pulling this scam as well. And bank ATMS no routinely offer this conversation choice. Always say no to either of them.

Our experience is that all bank owned ATMs in Europe are fee free to use. Doesn't mean that your bank will not add additional fees but it is rare to see a fee to use an ATM in Europe. BUT -- our experience is about three years old and have read some reports that some ATMs are adding a 1 or 2 euro charge to use the ATM. That is common in the US -- Out of Network Fee but less so in Europe. Also you will be notified if a fee is added and you back out and try another ATM. The European bank owned ATMs are very straight forward and honest. Remember the biggest users of ATMs is the local population and not Am tourists.

"Our experience is that all bank owned ATMs in Europe are fee free to use." Interesting. I found that to be true in France but not in Spain. The OP is asking about France so yes, bank ATMs are fee free there and if one has an account in the US that does not charge foreign transaction fees such as with Schwab or Capital One, it is a wonderful thing.

This year I’m trying the Schwab Debit card. Its a no ATM fee / no foreign transaction fee card. I hope to forgo the guessing game of how many euros I may need in advance and just get cash as needed. I’ll couple this with the credit cards.

Our experience is that all bank owned ATMs in Europe are fee free to use." Interesting. I found that to be true in France but not in Spain

Same here. Even as a European, euro-denominated bank account holder, Spanish bank ATMs now cost 1-3€ to use with a card from a foreign bank (or perhaps even for other Spanish bank cards).

But bank ATMs in France should not charge you fees on top of whatever your issuing bank is charging you.
And sometimes there are partnerships, for example BNP Paribas and Bank of America are partners so there are no ATM fees between these 2. Check if your bank has any such partnerships.

Balso mentioned what I was going to say. In France in use BNP Paribas since it’s a partner bank of Bank of America. If a fee is charged it gets reimbursed.

Fortunately, one doesn’t need much cash in France, so any transaction fees will be nominal, especially with regard to a trip’s overall cost.

Our credit union doesn't add any fees for ATM withdrawals in France.

We change money at the Post Office's ATMs because their rates are the best, in our experience. Not every post office has an ATM but the ones in larger towns will.

It is important to note that Bank of America charges $5 per foreign transaction and 3% of the US dollar amount as what they call an international transaction fee. Using one of their partner banks waives the $5 charge, it does not automatically waive the 3% fee, which is not to say that certain accounts are not charged this 3% fee.

I would question the idea that the exchange rate is "better" at one ATM or another. The exchange rate is established by the network that the card is using --- most likely either Plus or Cirris. The owner of the ATM does not determine the exchange rate.

"Our experience is that all bank owned ATMs in Europe are fee free to use." Interesting. I found that to be true in France but not in Spain.

And not in Italy, and Portugal, and Italy, and the Netherlands, and I guess Belgium, Germany, UK, Greece, Ireland, Czechia...probably a few more. Apparently France has some national regulation regarding fees and some ATMs.

Marty,
What balso and Jaimeelsabio said confirms my experience. I am a BofA customer and used BNP Paribas atms last June with no fees of any sort. I also have found partner banks in Chile, Spain, Portugal and Turkey which have agreements with BofA, so it is possible to not be charged. My sister in law and her husband had an ATM card from a smaller bank which would charge no fees, but their ATM card was denied access at various banks' ATMs in Spain. I don't know the reason, but it might have been because it was a very small regional bank that didn't have an international footprint. It was a Cirrus card, but still wouldn't work anywhere. It always behooves one to check with one's bank in advance, just in case there are partner banks with enough locations to be of use to one.
Best of luck, Marty! I am sure you will find a solution.

The Schwab card is a winner they really do refund transaction fees all over Europe and even in the US. Interest rate stinks on the savings account however.

I'm not sure about BNP Paribas being a "partner" with Bank of America. I know it used to own Bank of the West but sold it about a year ago to Bank of Montreal (BMO).

But the point of my comment is to add that, unlike most banks, BNP Paribas ATMs generally will allow a person to specify only 10s and 20s when making a withdrawal (as long as the machine hasn't run out of them). Most bank ATMs will include one or more 50s when withdrawing an amount larger than 70€. in my experience, 10s and 20s are easier to use and more welcomed by smaller vendors.