PayPal is in the early stages of what may be a blockbuster mobile payments deal with McDonald’s. McDonald’s is testing a mobile payments service featuring PayPal at 30 of its restaurants in France. Earlier this year, McDonald’s ran demonstrations of a broader PayPal mobile payments service at its franchisee conference in Orlando, Fla.

A McDonald’s spokeswoman confirmed the France tests and said the PayPal demonstration at its conference was part of a booth that features “technology coming within the next 24 months or so.”

PayPal is racing against start-up Square Inc. and other technology companies to become the mobile payments service of choice as consumers increasingly use smart phones to make purchases.