I normally use Bank of America here in the US - which has an international partner with BNP. In the past i've gone and withdrawn usually 100 Euros to spend along the way.

The past week I was able to spend nearly 2 weeks without using any hard currency, but using only my Apple Pay the entire time. So odd, but so convenient. I had both Mastercard and BoA Debit on my iphone.

I went to coffee shops, vendors at various markets, clothing stores, kebab shops, flower stores, restaurants, various tickets to Seine boat rides, museums and such.

It seems nearly every place accepts credit card.

Was this all due to Covid, or just the rapid pace of banking?