Buying a sim card for France in the US

You might try looking at an oufit called Mobal.

They sell both sim cards & phones - but, it is not an unlimited calling plan, you pay by the calls as you go ... texts are free. Their sim is $15 US.

Hello, thank you very much.

Unfortunately it looks like Mobal charges you as you go. I am looking for a sim card I can purchase outright for a certain amount and then buy another.
Thanks anyway though.
Any other ideas out there?

Do you need it in advance for some reason? I normally just visit a boutique or kiosk in the airport, shopping mall or department store to get a SIM.

I've used SFR and Orange in France. My last trip to France SFR became a no go for me. I like to have them put the SIM in my phone and make sure it's working before I pay (30 euro for the SIM but realistically need to add extra for data, about another 20 euro works for me for three weeks). SFR had changed their way of doing sales. They weren't selling SIMs in their boutiques, you had to buy from a Tabac. The people who work at Tabacs really aren't the ones to make any adjustments to your phone's settings (if needed).

Orange works fine. They sell a "holiday card" that is designed for people on vacation (50 euro including data, calls and texts, I think I added 10 for an additional week). The only bad thing is it works for 14 days. You can then go to a store to add value and keep it going - but you have to wait until day 14 and have to visit a store (as far as I can tell). There are likely multiple Orange SIM options but I've only used the holiday card so far.

I've used this outfit for the last couple of years, with no complaints, and will be using their SIM again next week: https://www.lefrenchmobile.com/. I've only used it for calls and texts, so I don't know how it is for data.

I wanted to buy my travel SIM card ahead of time because I wanted to know ahead of time what my phone number would be while traveling. I can't fathom the fact that the vast majority of people don't mind having an unknown (ahead of time) phone number. What do you do, spend your first day in Europe calling all your friends & family (not to mention all the hotels & attractions you've booked) to let them know your new temporary phone number? That simply doesn't make sense to me.

I visited my local T-Mobile store and they were all set to sell me an international plan, but then I checked with my cell phone company (Credo) and they said my phone cannot be enabled for international plans -- it can only be unlocked for specific countries. Someone on these forums tried to tell me that was because I hadn't paid for my phone, but that's false. I paid in full for my phone more than 2 years before this communication occurred.

I also looked into buying a SIM card from a phone provider in the country (e.g. France) and having it sent to my USA address. Unfortunately they wouldn't do this.

I ended up using my existing Credo cell phone service, with my usual phone number, throughout the trip. It was not expensive because I made very few calls, and it saved me the time I would have spent locating a place to buy a SIM card, getting it installed, making sure it worked, etc. I still had to have Credo unlock my phone and enable it for the countries I was visiting, and then call them when I got home to convert it back to US. But I was able to use it upon landing in the US to call our ride, to let the driver know we had landed.

Thanks for the great information folks.

I just used the Orange Holiday SIM in September. Worked great in cities, remote rural areas and islands, and in the UK, and most European countries.
To avoid any problems, I bought it at an Orange Boutique in Paris. They set up your account for you, install the SIM, and check that it’s working. It activates when you make a call or send a text, which I did in the boutique. (Just in case). You can add credit on line, if you register your SIM with Orange.
If you leave France, be sure to enable roaming, so your phone can connect automatically to the local signal.
Orange Holiday also supports tethering, some couples with 2 phones just put the SIM in one phone and connect the other phone by tethering. You can buy Orange Holiday on Amazon in advance.

What do you do, spend your first day in Europe calling all your
friends & family (not to mention all the hotels & attractions you've
booked) to let them know your new temporary phone number? That simply
doesn't make sense to me.

I think you meant this as a rhetorical question, but I'll bite, as someone who doesn't experience this as a general problem --

For friends and family this is not a problem at all. Most of them aren't going to direct dial me at an international number anyway because their US phone plans don't have a good rate for this. Furthermore, I'd say that in my circle of friends and family that are likely to call me when I am abroad (and that I am going to want to spend time talking to when I'm on vacation! ;) ) there is nearly 100% knowledge of other, and frankly cheaper, ways to reach me abroad -- I am perfectly reachable via FaceTime video, Skype, Whatsapp video call and Google Hangouts (not to mention email) on my smartphone, none of which require knowing my foreign phone number and just require data.

For hotels and restaurants I have only had minor problems. In my experience in France I only have about a few restaurants at all try to call me to confirm reservations; I do sometimes take the initiative to call and confirm the reservation ahead of time, which brings the number of restaurant cold calls even further down. As for hotels or attractions, I've had very few direct phone calls from them ahead of time in the first place, and for any ones that do absolutely need a live, working French cell phone number, I will spend 30 minutes on my first day updating those venues and that's that.

Thanks for the info. I recently found this forum and already have had answers to so many of my questions!

I bought the Orange Holiday SIM card for 14 days, 10 GB data, 1000 SMS and 1000 minutes to call anywhere in the works on EBay from Aerobile in TX. Works exactly as described except I got 20 GB of data! Put it in my iPhone XR when I arrived at the Nice airport. Works great, no issues so far and have been here for a week.
I chose this one as it got the best reviews. I think I paid about $5.00 more buying it in US, but I didn’t want to deal with looking for a place to purchase when I arrived.

In response to Andrew, who wrote " I am perfectly reachable via FaceTime video, Skype, Whatsapp video call and Google Hangouts (not to mention email) on my smartphone,..." there is the rub. I don't have any of these things on my phone, nor do I want them. Obviously that's just me.

With very elderly parents there could be a family emergency at any time, so it is important for loved ones to be able to call me. As another example, our overnight ferry from France to England was canceled on less than 12 hours' notice and the ferry company called me -- on my U.S. phone number since that is the number I had on file with them when I made the reservation many months in advance. Another time, I had booked an agriturismo stay months in advance and the host canceled on me at the last minute.

For all of these reasons I find it worthwhile to keep my regular phone and have my cell company unlock it and port it over to the countries I'm visiting.

If you are traveling with your partner, one of you can keep the US phone number, and the other one can buy a SIM card for Europe. That way family and friends can make local calls to reach you, while you have the advantage of a phone that works cheaply in Europe.

What do you do, spend your first day in Europe calling all your
friends & family (not to mention all the hotels & attractions you've
booked) to let them know your new temporary phone number? That simply
doesn't make sense to me.

I also think you meant this as a rhetorical question, but will add another option... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice.

I have been using it for 10 years. It can be effectively free depending on your usage profile. I put $10 credit on my account in 2015 and have a balance of $9.94 - I use it primarily for texting, receiving messages, and most places where I must give a phone number (like hotel reservations).

Incoming messages are transcribed and sent by email. I do NOT configure my local SIM number in Google Voice when I travel - I rely on notifications via the app on my phone (Android and iOS) or on email notifications.

Here is information on setting it up. You can choose an inbound phone number in almost any USA Area Code. When I signed up, and I think it is still true, you were given a choice of possible phone numbers, so you may be able to choose one which is relatively easy to remember.
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/google-voice-number/

@Andrew, Thanks for the information on Vodafone NL! I ordered a couple SIM cards on eBay about a week ago for our upcoming BOE tour. I like the idea of setting up things in advance, and particularly being able to top up with a US credit card.