The Carte Bleue: How France Reinvented the Payment Card

There are objects we use so often – and so instinctively – that it’s hard to imagine a time when they didn’t exist. And in fact, it’s just as difficult to picture a future without them. Today, on ATM stories, we’re travelling back in time to explore the origins of one such everyday essential: the payment card – known in France as the “Carte bleue.