Or, paying bills from France.

OK, I started writing this post, and it got longer and longer and more convoluted, so here’s the short version:

• PayPal requires that one open a new account in whatever non-U.S. country your address is in. Can’t add a ‘foreign’ address to one’s U.S. account.
• Having done that, and added a credit card to that new account, said credit card account having the same address and phone number as the new PayPal account, and despite the issuing bank for said credit card being notified of one’s travel plans, still flags the account for unusual activity, blocks a PayPal transaction, and locks said account.
• And finally getting a notification of said blockage via the bank’s mobile application, and acknowledging that all of the pending are indeed valid, said account is unblocked, and the desired transaction goes through.