No credit cards were rare in France, any that were offered by French banks were debit cards with ridiculously low limits and very high annual charges.
In 1981 I had one from my bank, SocGen, and tried to withdraw some cash one night and the ATM ate it. The Bank never contacted me and that was that. I have a French debit card but I only use it for French App Store purchases. Otherwise I use free credit cards from non French banks 
Some even give me (small amounts of) cash back based on purchases. Every little helps.