Credit Cards

Chip and pin cards are used everywhere for larger purchases. For nickel dime things e.g. under 10 Euro many places won't accept them. With US chip/sig cards you can use them anywhere it is a personal transaction and the agent can give you the ticket to sign; some but not all machines use them. The metro machines will take them; you just wait or hit continue when it asks for the PIN. Someone noted in TA recently that with the decline of the dollar that he has hit the limit with his chip/sig card in the metro when recharging a Navigo for the month. I charged ours up for a cost of roughly $75 last year but the dollar has now taking the monthly charge above their limit without a PIN so I will have to go to a manned sales booth at an RER station this year. The metro no longer has manned sales windows; they do have manned information windows and sometimes they will do this sort of transaction with a credit card (not cash - they don't do sales). I know US type cards work in machines in the metro and at the Louvre; haven't tried for mainline trains or other museums.

Did you pay foreign exchange fees? Less amazing to see how the charges many cards make for foreign transactions can add up.

Did you pay foreign exchange fees? Less amazing to see how the charges
many cards make for foreign transactions can add up.

To use credit credit cards that charge foreign exchange fees is the choice of the traveler; use a credit card without these fees and you won't have to worry about any foreign transaction fees adding up.

I have always paid cash in taxis, but you can easily use Uber in Paris and other larger cities, which puts the charge one your credit card.