In France, there are a number of stations which have self-service, 24 hour, pumps specifically marked as "Carte Bleu". They will not take U.S. issued cards and are intended only for French cards. Learned this after a futile 10 minute long attempt to make the U.S. card work.

Isn't technological innovation truely wonderful?

Edit: To the original poster.

Just realized that the problem really had nothing to do with the card. You tried to buy "petrol" from a "gasoline" pump. Tsk, Tsk.

[This message has been edited by opushomes (edited 09-15-2002).]