Face masks

Regular cloth face masks are ok in some situations, but not in all (I think, not OK on trains for instance).
Surgical masks are OK everywhere and the most common ones.
N95 are never required in France.

I would bring surgical ones. We ended up going to Milan via Paris, due to a delayed flight, and surgical masks were handed out before landing for those with cloth masks. My husband who had a N-95 mask on was told to put a surgical one on top of it, which did not make a lot of sense. But clearly surgical is the standard in France.

Did his N95 mask have a valve? Some do—-and then it would be appropriate to cover it with a surgical mask.

No it had no valve. I think it just wasn’t a surgical mask. The staff did not want to evaluate alternatives I think.

I switched from a KN95 to a surgical mask at the hairdresser yesterday, at his behest. Something about the chemicals from my permanent messing up my mask; I hadn't thought to take a second one with me. That surgical mask was like wearing nothing--horribly loose-fitting. I've decided if I'm wearing a mask (and I am), it's going to be a mask that fits a lot better than a surgical mask. Obviously I'd have to follow instructions of flight crew on a plane, so I suppose wearing the surgical mask on top of an N95 or KN95 would be the best I could do there.

Beth that is interesting. I'm wearing N95s as well so will take some surgical masks to wear over it just in case.

And acraven, I agree with you. At present I want something tight across my face.

The standard is surgical masks. Some people wear a FFP2 or FFP3 mask. No one really wears a cloth mask. Also, cloth masks have been technically prohibited in schools and at businesses since June.

In case you're interested, here are the mask guidelines from the government:
https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/actualites/A14041

Cloth masks are fine, as you won't be going anywhere where they are forbidden

"Si les masques faits maison en tissu ou les masques grand public de catégorie 2 (garantissant une filtration de 70 % des particules de 3 microns émises par le porteur) ne sont pas interdits, ils ne peuvent plus être portés en entreprise ou à l'école"

While homemade fabric masks or category 2 consumer masks (guaranteeing 70% filtration of 3-micron particles emitted by the wearer) are not banned, they can no longer be worn in the workplace or at school.

By workplace they mean your own workplace.

We traveled to Europe last month. Looking back, I wish I’d brought fewer cloth masks (maybe 1 or 2). Most people wore surgical masks or KN95s or equivalent. Masks were easy to find at pharmacies and grocery stores. On the plane, I wore a KN95 that had the headband style straps. This was more comfortable as it kept the pressure off my ears. Happy travels!

to get a closer fitwith the surgical masks you can knot each ear loop at the edge of the mask and then sort of fold the mask at that point inward so instead of that gap on the side, it closes up -- it sort of cups your face and makes for a tighter fit.

We are taking a bunch of korean k95s with us and a bunch of surgical masks and hope to buy more there. We usually cycle them at home i.e. let one rest a few days between wearings, but I suspect that traveling we will be discarding them more often. I assume we will be acquire more as we go.

The cloth ones are just not as good as the surgical and K95s and so we just no longer use those.

Flights in all countries require surgical masks. All other situations cloth masks are acceptable for France & Italy. The only exception I have encountered so far in Europe is that Germany requires surgical masks on trains.