You can read about it here

In this case it’ll be the second meaning (disdain)

I personally liked this video and this WSJ video about it 20 years later

I’m living in Europe now and would like to share my experience with this:

1. When you proceed to pay, the machines here have 2 options side by side on the screen for you to select how you want to pay - cash at the counter or card at the machine. So I’m quite surprised that your machines work differently

2. Quite a few European countries actually still rely heavily on cash to the point of cash-only for a lot of shops, for example in Germany and Italy

3. Besides your list, one other advantage I found was being able to order overseas when the locals didn’t speak English at all and I couldn’t read the menu. In Norway, there’s an option to select English or Norsk. In Poland where I went, there wasn’t a choice but it didn’t matter because the menu is mostly universal so the pictures were sufficient

Could it be that the places you’re looking at are the most popular destinations of French tourists? 🤔