Was it because the notes wouldn t be recognized by the machine and might be fake or the shops just didn't t accept 500euros notes?
Cash use in France has been going noticeably downhill in just a few years. Shop keepers and other business owners get a lot of questions it seems from their bank over each 500notenote (a couple of friends there related how it got worse recently) and even smaller businesses now need to abide to the cash transaction limits in France, including luxury hotels where Parisians just a few years back used to spend their undeclared cash on lavish vacations/week ends.
Germany and Switzerland seem much more cash friendly at the moment, and last I checked they still didn't have limits on cash transactions( i think the max transaction amount is between 1000and 1500 euros when it involves local residents in France and Spain)
That s one reason I enjoy visiting Germany and Switzerland, hate getting a hard time when trying to pay cash
I was in a small town market south of Orleans, people acted like they had never seen a 500 note before.