TL;DR The currency used in France is the Euro.
Current Currency
France uses the Euro as its official currency. This has been the case since the country transitioned from the French Franc to the Euro in 1999 for electronic transactions and 2002 for cash transactions [1:1]. When traveling to France, it is recommended to bring Euros, either in cash or accessible via credit/debit cards
[1:2].
Travel Tips
For travelers heading to France, it's advisable to carry some Euros in cash for small purchases, tips, and taxis. However, most transactions can be handled using credit or debit cards, which are widely accepted across the country [1:3]. It's also suggested to withdraw larger amounts at a time to minimize transaction fees
[1:2].
Historical Context
Before adopting the Euro, France used the French Franc as its currency. The transition to the Euro marked a significant change in France's monetary system, aligning it with other European Union countries that use the Euro [4:1]. Discussions about old French Francs often arise in numismatic contexts, where collectors seek historical coins and notes
[3:1],
[4:2].
Historical Transactions
In historical contexts, such as the Louisiana Purchase, France dealt with currencies like gold and bonds rather than paper money due to the complexities of international trade at the time [5:1],
[5:3]. These transactions highlight how different global financial systems operated before modern banking practices were established.
Howdy Folks, I've got a real stupid question, please bear with me..
As a Canadian, what currency should I be getting for my roughly 2 weeks in France? Euros?
Euros. Bring a credit card and some cash, I’d probably go with 200-500 to start then withdraw more when you’re here. Your Canadian debit will work in Europe. I pay $5 per withdrawal with Scotiabank and don’t find the exchange rate much different than what I see on Google (get slightly less euros). I withdraw a larger amount rather than 50-100 at a time to keep the fee at a minimum (the fee might be different with your bank).
Noted. THanks
Yes.
France uses Euros.
for a two week stay, how much would you bring if I can also rely on cards and whatnot? a grand?
don't bring to much cash, there are ATM's and in the city's cards like VISA and Mastercard are widely accepted (ask before ordering to make sure they accept.)
Also in Paris and other big city's pick-pocketing is a problem. invest in one of those on-body wallet's that you wear under you shirt
I generally use bank cards whenever I travel.
I'll bring 200€ for tips, short taxis and little purchases, and then just get more from a local bank or exchange if I run out.
if u r with td, go to any societe generale atm and make sure there is a PLUS sign next to it, you can withdraw upto 500 euro and no fee charge etc.
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Hi all. I’m new here so I hope this is an appropriate question.
I just saw a 1966 (or 1968?) movie from France and Senegal called “La Noire de…”, translated into English as Black Girl. It’s an allegory about French colonization and Senegalese independence. At one point an employer finally pays out long overdue wages in the amount of 20,000 francs. The person receiving this money makes a decision I was not expecting (trying not to give spoilers) so I’m trying to understand just exactly how much value and buying power this amount would have had. Is this pocket money, plane fare money, secure an apartment money?
I’m having trouble with internet research, seeing only resale value for old coins so anything would be helpful, mostly 1966 FF to USD. I can then calculate inflation of the USD. I don’t possess any currency; my interest is as a screenwriter and one who loves film and the decisions characters make. Thank you!
Just watched the same movie! Thanks for the info!
haha i just googled this question because I am watching the same film, your post was the first result
Just opened this thread bc I watched Mandabi
This is the reason I’m here also😂😂
I just saw the movie too but I find it hard to believe that the man in the film would be carrying around the equivalent of $3500 (or $28,000 in todays money)in his pocket or that they would consider paying her that much.
Me too
There are a couple of big coin stores on Rue Vivienne in Paris. I want to buy a couple of old francs but they had minimum purchases in the 15-20 range for anything that wasn't gold or ancient. I guess they are selling them mainly as bullion.
Yep, they're the Morgans and Peace dollars of France, IMO
I would love to buy a bulk lot of 5 franc silver
That coin is 25g of 0.9 silver:
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces674.html
This is interesting, franc-ly.
"when France still had" it's been 20 years and now I feel old, thanks!
Finland converted to euro around to same time as France and I still keep getting paid with the old coins sometimes >.>
A couple of years ago I overheard a little kid asking "dad, what is a quarter?"
Right! I’m 30, are we really at this stage? I weep
51 years really isn't that old in relation to numismatic pursuits.
Before they were forced into the global effort
These two nations, with two different currencies, make a deal. The United States offers them $15,000,000 for all that land and France accepts.
I saw a comment on reddit saying they shipped 3,000,000 worth of gold as a down payment and handled the rest as bonds.
How does that work? So France gets their shipment of gold, counts it, and that gold has a monetary value in Francs so that makes perfect sense to me.
But the United States offers them USD. Are they paying exclusively in gold? I understand these bonds are essentially IOUs to France, but is gold the only way they paid it?
I suppose this goes into a bigger question of how international commerce works in general. If they give France 15 million USD, do economists in France simply tally it up and "give themselves" the equivalent amount in Francs? Theyre not using dollars.
A country is producing its own currency at a fixed rate and distributing it to banks and such for the people to earn and spend. Whats different between the US giving them $15,000,000 and them simply producing the equivalent amount in Francs?
Through a combination of debt assumption and sovereign bonds, the United States financed the sale. The US used a London based bank and an Amsterdam based bank to handle the financing and sale of the bonds. The banks paid France and the US paid the banks. The payments were based in francs. Through this, the US had 20 years to pay off the bonds.
Still funny that a London based bank helped fund Napoleon's wars against Britain. Some things never change.
Back then it wasn’t like now where countries can easily swap currencies through banks. Paper dollars from the US wouldn’t really mean anything in France cause they had their own currency. What they did was a mix of gold and bonds.
The US shipped a chunk of gold and silver (hard currency) which France could melt down, re-mint, or just sell to other countries. The rest was in US bonds, which are basically government IOUs that promise to pay interest and can be traded or sold to investors. France could hold those bonds and get money over time, or sell them to banks in Europe for francs or pounds right away.
So it’s not like “here’s 15 million paper dollars” and France just writes “ok that’s 15 million francs now.” The value came from the gold and the creditworthiness of the US government. International trade back then was mostly done in precious metals or bonds/letters of credit, cause paper currency didn’t really travel well across borders.
It’s kinda similar to today, just with way slower logistics, instead of electronic transfers you had ships carrying bullion and physical documents.
Funniest thing with that transaction is that the British banks were the ones that facilitated the transfer thereby directly financing France and the upcoming Napoleonic wars.
Agreed!
The UK have very intelligently set up a central bank, which proved very valuable to the UK, and ultimately some other states as well.
France passed on the idea for several reasons. There are a few decades in there were France just wasn't looking its best.
Yep, Barings Bank managed the transaction, transferring large swathes of territory from British enemy France to more neutral America, killing the French new world empire.
The U.S. paid in a mix of gold and bonds, which Barings then cashed for Napoleon, with the bonds being hand delivered by someone from the bank.
Getting the French out of North America was directly beneficial to the U.K. So not strange at all. They where more than happy with the arrangement, and the Jay treaty was still in effect, the ratification of which cased a major rift in American-French relations leading to the US/French Quasi-War (1798–1800), and solidified the U.S. as a natural party with trade rights for 10 years, which France at the time saw as a leaning towards a British alignment which they could not old New Orleans or the west of the North American territories against. Which they where correct about as there where already plans to take New Orleans by force if access to the Mississippi was denied. So its a matter of France getting paid for what they would lose otherwise, and Britain facilitating it as it removes the remaining meaningful French prescience from the continent.
A lot of gold still gets shipped between countries, usually in cargo pallets on passenger jets now, so if you're on a flight between London, Zurich, and New York, there's a fair chance that millions of dollars of gold are just beneath your feet. But they might be labeled as fish.
During WWII, when things were looking pretty bleak, Britain stripped down some of its warships and cruise ships, loaded them up with all their gold, and sent them to Canada, just in case. $20 billion worth in just one of the convoys. It was pure luck that no u-boats encountered them en-route. And they intentionally sailed during stormy weather for cover. And did not take out insurance, to avoid a possible security leak.
The Canadian mounties closed off and surrounded the entire port for the unloading. It was called Operation Fish, because they marked all the crates as fish. Which naturally need to be shipped and unloaded quickly before they spoil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1KjM2wndTY
In a similar manner, modern gold transfers by jet may be labeled as fish. To explain why they have to be so hastily loaded and unloaded, bypassing the usual procedures.
My ancestor Jean François Gonsoulin did survey work on behalf of Napoleon in what is now Iberia Parish Louisiana and was paid in land for his rewards. They found oil on that land and now the estate is set up between probably hundreds of heirs all getting $4 checks per year
Apologies for my title, it was in 1803 not 1806. Thank you.
See also: HMS Edinburgh. Substantial payment in the region of £2bn from the USSR for war materials .. sunk in transit.
I'm no expert but in 1806 the US dollar was on the gold standard so France could take their US dollar denominated bonds and exchange them for US government gold or silver to that value if they wanted to. The bonds presumably had an interest component that made it more profitable to keep the bonds over gold which had a fixed price and no interest and as they were valued as a fixed quantity of gold or silver could be used in exchange with other countries
That 200 bill (Montesquieu) looks amazing, very beautiful details. And it's also huge, I wonder what kind of monster wallets people used to have to carry them.
I ask the same thing. I own some Spanish Pesetas and the 5,000 and 10,000 pesetas are huge.
I dont like the earlier francs they feel like toilet paper thin
nice pieces, i got a piece of french paper currency from 1792
Cool!
Oui Oui 🇫🇷🇪🇺🧅🥖
Where did you find?
Shopping online.
And how much did it cost?
love that 100 with cezanne
The 20 Francs note in this condition is quite rare. This was the lower value note circulating, so they tended to circulate a lot.
Is this new french currency?
non, cette pièce vaut 3 milliards d'euros et elle peut être utilisée PARTOUT
Wow
Wow that's... bright
Everyone look at this. This is a good example of challenge
:D
My partner and I are traveling to Paris next week for the first time. Neither of have have been to Europe before!
What is the best way to exchange USD to Euros?
Thanks in advance
Absolutely use your card and draw money at an ATM in France.
My bank charges no additional fees for withdrawals abroad and you get the daily spot exchange rate.
I have however seen that the airport ATM’s carry a larger fee - so if I need a small amount for my airport - city transport I usually just withdraw about 10 euros at the airport and then the rest of what I need in the city.
atm machine in Paris
Yes! ATM is the way to go. Check with your bank to see if they have an affiliate in the cities where you are going. Most have no fee, or a very low one, AND you will get good exchange rates. You can use credit cards to buy transfer transportation (make sure that you use one with no foreign transaction fees).
I second the ATM option. You can also check if the airport you’re leaving from has an ATM with Euros. We got ours in Atlanta
I just went to my bank before I left the states. I knew I wanted to go to the markets so got like a few hundred in each currency (England also)
Seconding going to the bank beforehand. There are always long lines at the exchange kiosks when I walked by. That and let your bank know you'll withdraw money via a French ATM as others have said. Usually there's a daily limit so get more cash in advance or plan out how much you'll withdraw per day. When I'd go with family or friends, we'd all withdraw our max when we could, just in case we couldn't find an ATM later on.
Ca fait 2 fois que j’entends cette expression sortir de la bouche de notre couple présidentiel. Plus récemment de la part de Brigitte Macron quand elle était sur le plateau télé de TF1 avec ses boîtes à pièces jaunes à ses côtés (Emmanuel mérite le respect.)
D’après Wikipedia, “Le pays de Cocagne est, dans l'imaginaire de certaines cultures européennes, une sorte de paradis terrestre, une contrée miraculeuse où la nature déborde de générosité pour ses habitants et ses hôtes. Loin des famines et des guerres, Cocagne est une terre de fêtes et de bombances perpétuelles, où l'on prône le jeu et la paresse, et où le travail est proscrit.”
Cette vision ne peut être que de personnes parisiennes vivant sous les dorures des bureaux, palais et autres châteaux…
Ceux qui ont compris ça comme elle louant sa chance de vivre en France font un contre-sens, elle parle des français (en particulier des français les plus pauvres), pas d'elle-même.
Dans l'imaginaire des gens comme eux, les français jouissent de choses qu'ils ne méritent pas vraiment ("des gens qui ne sont rien"), style éducation et santé, alors ils pourraient au moins avoir l'obligeance de se la fermer et d'être reconnaissants de leur président.
Ré-écoutez, quand elle dit "on a tout" d'un air semi-exaspéré, on entend le "sans bosser" derrière. Elle insiste "on est aidés" d'ailleurs (je suis sûr qu'elle ne se reconnait pas dans les gens que le système français aide : pour exemple, je rappelle qu'elle n'a connu que l'éducation privée, en tant qu'élève ou en tant que prof, elle ne s'est jamais mêlée au public).
Le plus important quand il s'agit de déclaration publique de la part de politiciens est de voir quel est le but de ces déclaration. Les centristes éclairés bien sûr ont sauté sur le fact checking centriste: "en fait la France c'est clopin-clopant", Bravo.
Maintenant si on réfléchit à ce qu'il y a d'intéressant ici : l'aspect performatif ce cette déclaration.
Son but pour moi est de chercher l'approbation du côté de celles et ceux qui dans l'ordre social se sentent menacés par les revendications des classes inférieures.
Les gens qui se disent, "Je ne vois pas de quoi vous vous plaignez" ou "ça va, on est mieux ici qu'ailleurs"- repris par Macron pendant sa visite à Mayotte.
Evidemment les personnes qui vivent de plein fouet la violence de la situation en France et sa dégradation ne vont se sentir blessé par cette désinvolture et déni face à leur souffrance. Mais le durcissement de la droite trouve de plus en plus sa cohésion dans le déni et la violence symbolique envers les populations qu'elle estime inférieure : "les assistés" et "les immigrés".
Donc le but ici est de draguer à droite et de consolider cette cohorte autour de cet axe.
comparé a une grande majorité du reste du monde on l'est effectivement mais c'est le cas principalement grâce aux politiques que macron s'evertue a saboter
Et c'est très bien ainsi. C'est justement un modèle social à protéger plutôt qu'à démanteler. Les classes dominantes parlent de la valeur travail alors que ce qu'il souhaitent c'est la soumission.
Moi je ne suis vraiment pas parisien. Pourtant....
Les heures travaillées en France sont 16% inférieures à la moyenne européenne. Alors on peut dire qu'on travaille énormément en France, mais c'est peut être faux.
La générosité de la "nature" (l'Etat.. dans ce cas) est la plus élevée au monde (31% du PIB est ponctionné pour être redistribué). Alors on peut dire que l'Etat le plus généreux du monde n'est pas vraiment généreux, comme on peut dire que l'homme le plus riche du monde n'est pas vraiment riche, mais c'est compréhensible que certains pensent que la France est l'exemple même de l'Etat profidence
Pour la famine, je n'ai pas de chiffres mais j'imagine que le pourcentage des gens mangent moins que le minimum requis doit être plus faible que dans d'autres pays (certainement en lien avec le point d'au dessus).
Pour la paresse... honnêtement, je ne sais pas si on entend beaucoup la réthorique "il faut travailler plus, c'est important de travailler" en France. À part chez les enfants de bourges, qui subissent tous la pression de "tu dois faire la meilleure prépa, la meilleure école" (probablement plus qu'ailleurs), le discours me semble plutôt "4 semaines de RTT en plus des 5 semaines de congés payés, c'est parfaitement normal", accompagné souvent du fameux "on ne va quand même pas niveler par le bas".
Quand au "travail proscrit", là je suis moins d'accord. Si on regarde le taux maximal d'imposition (45% + 4% sur les hauts revenus), c'est pas mal plus bas que dans d'autres pays de l'OCDE. Donc on décourage moins l'effort pour gagner plus d'argent que dans 21 pays, menés par la Belgique, avec 79% de taux marginal.
Ça te semble fou ce que je dis là ?
what is the currency of france?
Key Takeaways:
Recommendation: If you're traveling to France, it's advisable to have some Euros on hand for small purchases, although credit and debit cards are widely accepted.
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