Any Tips on Buying an Esim in Paris

I forgot to add that I am looking for a plan that allows voice calls

I've like Airalo and had success using that for a month in Germany. If you want it for more than one country, they have regional plans available, like these for Europe. https://www.airalo.com/europe-esim Usually you buy them before you leave and install the app, then once you get to your first destination, activate and you're ready to go. The instructions are pretty easy, imo. You can read more about it here: https://www.airalo.com/help

If you need a phone, you can look at the Holiday Orange eSIM plans, which offer talk as well. They are more expensive but you get a French phone number.

I went to the Orange store at République but the guy there told me that American iPhones will not work with any eSIM in France. He tried scanning the QR code but was unable to do so. I haven’t tried any other provider. I just bought some Skype time instead. Seems to me he just gave up too easily

Which iPhone was it? Is it unlocked?

iPhone 15, definitely unlocked

I think you just got a guy at the orange store who either didn’t know how to do it or just didn’t want to do the work. Because you can definitely use an esim on an iPhone 15 unlocked and orange can definitely do it. My friend did when we were there last time and she didn’t have any problems. ( I went with T-Mobile just so I wouldn’t have to deal with this hassle. 😂)

We used the store in St. Germain but I don’t remember the exact road it was on. Sorry.

We purchased one from Orange before we left. I have an iPhone 11 pro and my husband a iPhone 12 pro. Pretty easy peasy. We went with the 50 GB each plan because data gets eaten up quickly. We've had to switch from time to time to our verizon number on occasion for a few things. $10/day can add up pretty quickly for 2 people over 86 days.