Just had lunch in a sizeable restaurant in La Fontaine de Vaucluse near to L’Isle sur les Sorgue in Provence and was shocked to find that it was cash only - although I noticed no signs to that effect .
Luckily they were ok about it and I was able to wander off - leaving mrs kenren as a hostage - to find a cash machine and return with payment.
First time we’ve been obliged to use cash in France for a good few years. Has anybody else experienced this or were we just unlucky?
Ken
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I have not stopped carrying cash and cannot remember encountering 'cash only' issues on my travels in the past few years.
DK
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Occasionally camp sites prefer cash, and I always pay cash for our storage (choice is that or bank transfer).
I usually carry about €150, just in case!
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Live in France - only things we use cash for are tipping in restaurants, cafes if we just buy a cup of coffee - and our annual firewood purchases amounting to about 500 euro from a local farmer which I somehow doubt is all declared to the taxman.
Not experienced that before, we normally use cards but do carry cash for the usual reasons (tipping, small purchases etc).
We have had it where certain cards have been refused, strangely these are usually debit cards rather than proper credit cards, a bit annoying when your pre-loaded with Euros debit card gets declined!
Ok, over 3 years since I've been to France, but last trip and the one in year before, what wasn't paid for up front from UK, was covered by a pre-paid credit card as we'd budgeted our expenditure almost to the pound. We each took around 100 Euros cash as emergency/contingency funds and never touched it, still got it awaiting next trip!
It's a VERY long time since I've experienced Cash Only on my travels, but did find a campsite when we were researching where to stay that was cash only (we didn't stay there!).
IMHO pretty rare situation these days, even bars and cafes took cards for relatively small transactions.
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We are currently in Portugal and probably 50% of the bars restaurants we have been in are cash only. First time in Portugal so not sure if that's the norm
Recently visited a small brandy distillery, where the good stuff was €28 for cash, but €42 by card. My guide said the owner was a bit of a rogue, but knew how to make good brandy.
We did get caught out by a campsite in the Finistère that was cash only, when the owner had calculated the price for the pitch, ehu, 2 croissants on order for the next morning and one shower token (I had to tell him that husband showers in the van, we weren’t sharing ) it came to €22.70, all the cash we had bar a few cents ! We couldn’t be bothered to go back along the winding lanes to the nearest town in the pouring rain so couldn’t even buy a drink in their bar! still a great site, and lesson learned.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Cash only in France
via mobile 19/6/2025 at 9:05pm
) it came to €22.70, all the cash we had bar a few cents ! We couldn’t be bothered to go back along the winding lanes to the nearest town in the pouring rain so couldn’t even buy a drink in their bar! still a great site, and lesson learned.
