New with Smart Phone use

Grace, A SIM card is your connection to the phone network. Think of it like the socket you plug your phone into at home. Which socket you plug it into (yours or your neighbours) decides what the phone number is, and who bills you. Same for a SIM card.

I can purchase a local sim card that will allow me to take photos, text and phone calls locally.

Yes, except you don't need a SIM card to take photos (or anything else that doesn't need a network connection), just to send them to somebody.

My apt has Wi-Fi capabilities and free Intl phone service. Therefore, I should be able to connect to the apt WiFi with my smart phone, correct??? I will then be able to send email back to us along with photos that I have taken, correct?

If you are connected via WiFi, you don't need a SIM card.
If you are on WiFi, you can send e-mails (and other internet stuff that needs a network connection), without it using any of your SIM card's data allowance.
If you are not connected to WiFi (outside the apartment), then all e-mails are sent via the SIM card and count against your data allowance.

"free Intl phone service" - I question that. The phone may have free calls within France, or even some free minutes to other European Countries, but I have never heard of free unlimited calls to any country.

Absolutely!
You could practice at home first, from a home with Wifi; then you can get the process all down pat before your trip.
Or from your own home if you have Wifi.
Never use public Wifi , as in a café or shop; for emails, banking etc.
Just not very secure.

Good tips here. I also sent you a private message.

As stated above, you don't NEED a SIM card to use the phone on WiFi or take pictures out and about. You can find WiFi at cafes and public places too.

But a SIM (which changes your phone number to a European number - you won't get incoming calls to your US number anymore until you put your old SIM back in) lets you use the phone for on-the-fly walking and pubic transit directions, something I have found extremely useful in recent years. Using Google Maps to get around has saved me an enormous amount of time - much less time if any studying bus schedules or plotting out how to get from place to place. You can't do that (or not very well) just on WiFi.

Assuming you are American, some US mobile companies (Sprint and T-Mobile) had included international roaming plans that give you free mobile data overseas and the ability to make calls for 20 cents a minute. Verizon and AT&T charge $10/day. Some of the cheaper mobile plans don't offer international use at all, but some may let you make calls via WiFi.

Never use public Wifi , as in a café or shop; for emails, banking etc. Just not very secure.

Not really an issue anymore since most websites have moved to SSL encryption. I still use a VPN on my laptop, but for say my Gmail account on my phone I wouldn't have any worries about using it on public WiFi.

What kind of smart phone do you have?
Who do you use here as your provider?
You might not really need to deal with SIM card

We are Verizon customers with iPhones- we just add their Global Data Plan- something like $25 per billing cycle for a certain amount of data. We have found that amount sufficient for trips up to 24-26 days.
We keep our phones in "Airplane Mode" always-- only turn to wifi when we really need it or have free service (hotel and also very easy to find out and about).

We also use WhatsApp- for text messages to the states and UlmanPro App for maps-- neither use data.

Christine, Verizon's monthly global roaming plans give you almost no data (there's a $25/month plan and a $40/month plan; both give you 100MB of data but the $40/month plan gives you some calling minutes and texts while the $25 plan charges you $1.79 per minute for calls or 50 cents per text). Verizon's $10/day roaming plan makes more sense but can really add up, too.

100MB might be enough for a very short trip, but it is severely limiting if you hope to use your phone for say Google Maps navigation. You'll have to use the data sparingly when not on WiFi. SIM cards are so cheap, it's a shame to have a smart phone but having to severely limit the use of your phone. The $30 USD I spent for my Dutch Vodafone SIM for 3GB of data last month last May was money well spent, if only for the on-the-fly directions for walking and public transit - saved me hours of time vs. past trips. Having to rely on WiFi for that would make the phone much less useful to me. (And "offline" Google maps does not support walking/public transit directions, only driving.)

To the party who said they sent me a private message: where do I find that??

I bought a Google Pixel2. So far I don't like anything about using it!! Ha! I absolutely do not like texting. If I don't like Texting, what am I going to do with the phone?? Only use it for phone calls, I guess!! It is supposed to take the best photos of all smart phones...will see...

Joan

I think I was asked who I have my plan with. It is with Verizon. There is no manual for this thing. I think I may only use it to answer phone calls and take photos.

Re my apartments and free International Phone service. There may be some countries that it does not go to, but for many years I have been using it in all the Paris Perfect Apartments. I just dial the country code and the number and that does it!! I use it regularly from Paris to the US. Very convenient. They have free WI-FI Service too....

Joan

I have had free international calling with rentals, I guess it’s a selling point like a heated pool.

The free international calling is a perk that would have meant a lot more ten years ago. Now with a smart phone you can call any international number for pennies per minute with Skype or Google Hangouts and use it anywhere, not just at your apartment. Unless you are making a lot of calls, it's not really saving you much money to speak of. A heated pool would be much more useful.

You might check with your local senior center or community ed....they might have a class about using your smart phone. While they might not know the ins and outs of calling plans/sim cards, they could help you learn how to use some of your smart phones capabilities.

I've used two different services in France. One was a SIM card from SFR. It cost 30 euro and came with a small amount of phone time and date. I added another 30 during my stay (but could have rationed my use better). Last time I used Orange Holiday Card. It cost 40 or 50 euro. The biggest limitation is it lasts exactly two weeks. You can add data to the card but, as far as I know, you can't add a few extra days. Next time I visit, I'll see if I can recharge it or have to get a new card. I decided not to turn it on until I was leaving Paris and to go the last few days without when I was back in Paris (lots of WiFi available).

As was said, your phone will take pictures until you use up your memory. How much of a memory card will your phone take? Mine takes a 32 GB card, so plenty for one trip unless you pack it with applications. If you have a smaller memory, pack some extra memory cards in your bag to plug in when needed.

In terms of data usage. Almost everywhere in France has WiFi. I tried to use data only when I needed and always use WiFi for sending or downloading photos, videos, apps etc. With the Orange card, it came with something like 10 GB of data. After 11 days I had only used 2 GB so stopped rationing my use. Generally you just need to get used to turning on and off your data/WiFi at appropriate times. If you have WiFi on but aren't connected, for example, your phone may use a lot of battery power searching for available signals. If you leave data on when you're using the phone as a GPS, it will use data to augment the GPS location - wasting data.

For maps, I use Google maps occasionally but find it gobbles both battery and data. If you expect to use your phone for getting around, I really like CoPilot as a GPS. I downloaded maps before leaving home ($30 for Western Europe maps, no charge for the app) so I can navigate with data turned off. Once you find your destination, you can navigate in Google maps without data too. If you miss a turn, however, Google maps won't update your route without data. Google has the better search capability. Often I'll use Google maps to get an address, then plug it in to CoPilot and start driving.

One caveat for CoPilot. The car GPS works great. I tried to use it in bike mode and it was really awful.

OP, years ago, I resisted getting a smartphone because I was too cheap to pay the much higher cost from a non-smartphone. Now it is my most indispensable possession/brain: Color coded calendar, Google Maps, Google Translate, Music, Weather,
Notes for such things as grocery lists. Unless you are a serious photographer, you will love using your Smartphone for photos because you always have it with you, unlike a camera. And be warned, unless your friends and family share your dislike of texting, you will have no choice but to do it-when texting first started, my husband refused to call me when he could text and you can imagine my daughter's stance on the same issue!