My point was that if Fort-de-France wants to be welcoming to cruisers (which I think it does and has made a great effort), then I think the waterfront shops in particular should accept dollars for a diet coke. I would agree that it is their decision and if they do not want dollars, that's fine with us - we'll go to someone who does. Other places in the city in Martinique did accept dollars - the restaurant at which we ate lunch had no problem taking dollars - other shops did take dollars - maybe in those other cases we were dealing with an owner or someone with more discretion to decide what to accept. In my neck of the woods, I do not think anyone ever offers euro's in payment, but I am quite certain that a few retaurant owners or general managers I know would take euro's or lira or gold jewelry at a reasonable exchange if it meant more business. If you are just dealing with a cashier at most places, they would not be able to deal with other currency. Heck, I would take euro's if anyone offered them to me to pay a bill. I suppose it could be considered an "ugly American" thing if someone was offended by the shop's refusal to take dollars - we were not offended - again, my point was that if you want to welcome cruisers who are predominently US with US dollars in their pockets, I suggest setting up to take dollars for your products and services. If expressing that view offends you, I am sorry to have offended you. (BTW, I know from experience that at least some casinos along the French Riviera will let you put dollars down on the table without going to cashier first - just so you know.)

Just saw your post - please be assured that I take no personal offense at your post. I am called names almost every day in my line of work, so I am pretty hard to offend.