Assuming logical procedures with the French funtionaires? That's a good one!

When I last used detax in Terminal 1 late last year, they had a hand-written sign saying that boarding passes were required. I didn't have mine (we had not checked in yet) and they accepted my e ticket printout. But I have heard from several folks since that they were asked for their boarding pass.

As for using a credit card as suggested by you and Landing Gear, I agree if the traveler won't be back to the shop where the goods were purchased. The credit card avoids the issue of what to do with a small check in Euros. But credit card detax refunds are usually done by a third party and the ones I've seen take about a thrid of your refund. So if you buy $1,000 of goods and the tax (and detax refund) is about $200, they are taking a fee of about $65 to, in essence, run a credit through your credit card. Ouch!

I've had another problem with one of the refund firms named "Detaxe SA". Twice they have failed to process my refund, and each time, after waiting a few months, I emailed them but I never received a reply from their customer service department. I got the first refund after I found an email address for one of their execs and sent my complaint there. I'm back in touch with that same exec now chasing down my second refund. Maybe my transactions were exceptions to an otherwise smooth operation, but when I get back to Paris, I'll be letting merchants who use Detaxe SA know of my experiences and my disappointment in having to send emails over and over, only to have them apparently ignored.