What! No slot?

When Lisbeth took Bob back to the airport, she went armed with some 1 & 2 euro coins for the car park. Charging for parking is a new thing. She hadn't had cause to pay before but knew that she would be longer than an hour and that some payment would be required.

Having said goodbye to Bob, she set off for home. Arriving at the automatic barrier, she put her parking card in and saw that 2 euros were requested. However, she couldn't find the slot. A car came up behind her and waited. Then another and another. Eventually, the lady in the car behind got out to see what the problem was. By this time, Lisbeth had realised that you could only pay with a bank card! (I know, for 2 euros!) So she ran round to the driver's side for her card. (She's right-hand-drive, remember so has to get out and go round to pay.) Now she was able to start again: parking card in; time elapsed; payment of 2 euros requested; bank card in......... but because she had used her English card, it said it didn't recognise it. By this time the queue was very long so the woman behind her suggested that she used her card to pay and Lisbeth pay her the 2 euros.

This airport is used more by the English than the French so what were they thinking?