Is a 100 euro bill common and perceived as normal?

italy

100€ bill is uncommon but not seen as shady. The acceptance depends upon the availability of change and the possibility of fraud: do not even try to pay a newspaper with it, but 80€ at the supermarket is fine; moreover, if the shop has a some kind of autenticity check device, they more likely will accept it. Same goes for the 200€ bill.

As for 500€ bills, they are definitely uncommon and not used for everyday payments.

spain

In Spain ATMs don’t distribute 100€ notes or higher. Only 50, 20, 10 and 5€ notes. They can, however, be acquired at the bank’s office.

It’s common for stores, especially smaller ones, to have signs saying they don’t accept notes above 50€.

So no, 100€ notes and higher are extremely rare in Spain. You just won’t see them. If you do, make a wish.

italy

The image below comes from the statistics page of the Bank of Italy, and shows the amount of bills (thousands of units) emitted by the bank, divided by type ("taglio": 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 euro) and by year.

As you can see, the lion’s share goes to 50 euro bills, but 100 aren’t by any means uncommon.

There’s a maximum amount for cash payments – currently it’s 5.000 euros, with a low of 1.000 euros for the first months of 2022. These amounts are usually paid with larger denomination bills.

That depends where you are. The countries of Europe vary in wealth a lot.

I live in Germany and even within the country there are huge differences. Usually the 500€ bill is not accepted (and it is also not printed anymore).

But in my home town Frankfurt, we have an ATM in the inner city (Zeil, direction Goethe-Straße) which only gives out 500€-Bills. And shops in the area to go along with that.

You will also have no issue to pay with a 100€-Bill in any shop in the city.
I have even used 200€-Bills in the Supermarket.

In more remote places smaller denominations will be preferred. But you will always be able to use a 100€.

In other country’s of the Euro-Zone I have made different experiences.

Short answer: It very much depends on the country, city and kind of shop you want to spend it in.

In Austria, definitely yes. 100 euro bills come out of ATMs, so many people regularly have some of them and spend them.

200 and 500 euro bills, not so much.

One possible reason for hassle with a €500 note, that should be rather independent of spending habits in a certain country: as of 2019, €500 notes are no longer being issued (source). The reason, as others have mentioned, was that €500 notes were often used in criminal activities.

I admit that I misunderstood those news, thinking that the €500 notes are no longer legal tender, and it’s likely that the same happened some shopowners or cahiers that now won’t accept them. But, according to the same source: "Existing €500 banknotes continue to be legal tender, so you can still use them as a means of payment and store of value (i.e. spend and save them). Similarly, banks, bureaux de change and other commercial parties can keep recirculating the existing €500 notes."

As only €500 notes were discontinued, you shouldn’t run into the same trouble with a €100 note.

Anything above €50 is extremely uncommon outside of a handful of cash-friendly countries (mostly Austria and Germany, which are the only countries to have produced any in recent years). Business owners might not be happy to break a €50 but that’s hard to avoid when that’s what some ATM give you. Some will have signs explicitly warning that they won’t accept €100, €200, or €500 banknotes.

Beyond that, many countries in the eurozone have also moved away from cash generally, which also means businesses have less change on hand when they are not outright refusing cash. There are also limits on how much you are allowed to pay by cash in about half of all eurozone countries further contributing to a general lack of use for large denominations.

germany

Germany is still strong on using cash, both for small day-to-day purchases and large ones (cars or until recently even houses). The latter is seen as a serious money laundering concern, but reform is stuck in debate.

Using the €50 note is quite common, but it may lead to grumbling from shopkeepers when it is used for small purchases. "Haben Sie es nicht kleiner?" "Don’t you have it smaller?"

Using the €100 and €200 note is less common but not unheard, and my perception is that it isn’t seen as shady. Just unusual, most people who spend that kind of money use digital payment systems.

There are shops which have posted notice that they are refusing the €500 note out of forgery concerns. The occasional forged, undetected 50 is the cost of doing business, a forged 500 would seriously impact their earnings.

Between uncommon and barely usable, depending on the country:

netherlands

A €100 banknote is barely usable in ordinary supermarkets. Some will refuse to accept one altogether, in others you will see the cashier call a couple more colleagues to inspect your banknote before ultimately accepting it. (€200 and €500 banknotes are basically not accepted anywhere.)

france

Similarly to the Netherlands, bills of 100€ or above are uncommon, but some ATMs still deliver them. 200€ bills especially are so rare that a lot of French don’t even know they exist at all, and most have never seen one.
Bigger stores like supermarkets will check those bills more thoroughly but tend to accept them widely.
A lot of smaller stores do try to refuse the bills and put up disclaimers. However, as long as you provide exact change it is illegal for a shopkeeper to refuse cash as payment (article R642-3 of the Penal Code), unless one tries to pay with more than 50 coins.

In the same vein, it is also illegal and considered discrimination for most sellers to refuse serving a paying customer (article R132-1 of the Consumer Protection Code and article 225-2 of the Penal Code) outside of very specific reasons.
Notable exclusions to these laws include some services such as banking and insurance, as well as commerce between private companies.