Visa/credit cards

I'm not certain about taxis, Visa is accepted at most any merchant that accepts credit cards. But, you won't be able to use your card at most any type of automated machine, like at a train station. These machines require cards with smart chips, US cards don't have these chips.

Second, a slight cultural or procedural thing that it is not common to use a credit card for small purchases under 10E. Cannot speak directly to Paris since it has been several years but my experience elsewhere is that taxis are cash only. You need to check very carefully with your card issuer to determine the currency conversion fees that the card issuer will add to your charges. 3% is common. Do NOT permit any merchant to charge your card in dollars -- called dynamic conversion -- and it means that you get screwed twice.

Cash in Europe has many advantages -- much more so than the US. We just did 33 days and only had two credit card charges.

Question for Frank - you wrote "We just did 33 days and only had two credit card charges." Assuming you didn't carry that much cash, were you using a debit card for ATM transactions? If yes, did you have any problems with the ATM's requiring chip and pin cards?

Judith, I would plan on using cash for taxis. While there may be some taxis that accept cards, I would not plan on it.

I agree with Frank ... use of credit cards is not as common as in the U.S., particularly for small purchases. Keep in mind that when you pay with a card, the merchant incurs a fee (a percentage of your purchase). I typically only use my credit card for the hotel bill or major purchases. I use cash from an ATM for just about everything else including meals, transportation, etc.

David, it is not the ATMs that require a chip and pin card. As Michael mentioned, the place where you may run into problems are automated machines such as ticket machines. In these cases, you need to conduct your transaction with a human or use a machine that accepts cash.

I don't know where, besides Paris, you will be traveling to, but still a lot of smaller restaurants, taverns, etc. will only take cash.

I was in Germany/Austria for two weeks in Aug/Sept last year, and I had no problem using my American debit cards in ATMs. I only used a credit card once, in a local ticket automat in Freilassing, Germany, because it didn't take cash, and that was not a problem, either.

Considering the propensity of cab drivers in Europe to cheat people (palming bills, etc), I would never give one of them a credit card.