Orange Cell Phone

Here you go - in plain English:
boutique.orange.fr/mobile/carte-prepayee-orange-holiday-eng

You can purchase an Orange holiday SIM at a boutique in Paris or at Relay shops in the airport.
I would caution you to go to an Orange boutique - Google for locations - and avoid lunchtime. The service is better in the boutiques.

Print the page and show it to the clerk so he will know exactly what you want.

You will need to bring your original passport.

I haven't used Orange yet. I planned to try this on my next trip in a few weeks. My last time, I used SFR (? three letters anyway) but don't plan to use them again. They were okay the first time I used them but last time never got my service working right and got excuses from the boutique rather than function.

We purchased an Orange SIM last year at CDG at a Tabac. The Clerk offered no help and did not respond when I tried to request assistance. However, later in our hotel room, we were able to easily install and launch it by following the instructions. (If you're not familiar with the SIM tray, you might want to locate and do a test opening (paper clip or safety pin) before the trip.) We didn't come close to using the allotted minutes and data on their cheapest plan.

This is for Euro calls only correct? No calls to the U.S..

You can add credit to call back to the US (it's quite expensive). I've been using Orange since 2008. If you want to buy it, and think you'll need assistance, go to an actual Orange store. You'll need your passport and an address (use your hotel or lodging). A person working at a Tabac will offer you no service, they just sell the mobicarte cards. That's like going to your local convenience store in the US and asking about your Verizon plan,

I bought a SIM card from an Orange store in Paris in February precisely so they could help if I needed it. There are stores all over Paris. I paid $40 for 14 days. They aren't the cheapest but they provide good service. I could have bought a cheaper SIM card at CDG but no one there to help me and no place to go if I needed help while in Paris.
Orange did not ask for my address in Paris.

I was already delayed when I reached CDG back in June so didn't stop there, but had an hour between trains in Lyon and found the Orange shop on the ground floor of the shopping centre directly opposite the station. They were very helpful and did the total SIM installation for me. I am returning to France next month and have instructions for extending the Orange service for another month, keeping the same phone number, with a voucher from a tabac. If that proves difficult I will seek out another Orange shop.

Don't knock all tabacs. When I had a relatively new iPhone 5, I could not find a nano SIM at any of the shops at CDG. I hopped the TGV to Strasbourg and could not get one at any of the three cell phone stores I tried. Then I saw a tabac selling Lebara cards, among others, and it also offered discounted international telephone booths, fax services and money orders. The clerk took a standard SIM and cut it to size using a handheld die cutter (looked like a stapler). Inserted into my phone and made sure it was working properly before I left the shop. Also made sure it was using English. And all this for €10. Great service at the tabac!

I use SFR. Thé SIM was 10 € and two weeks unlimited was 20€. Bought at the Tabac but installed by the SFR shop yesterday.

You can also purchase the Mobicarte plan, which allows you to make international calls.
You just top it up if you run out of money.
Some ATMs have the capacity to let you top up Orange or SFR Mobicartes.
Otherwise, you can top it up by phone using a credit card - but it's all in French.

This might be your best bet.
Again, print out the page for Mobicarte so you get what you want.

Thank you all for the help. I have done prior trips on wifi only but I think I am going to take the hit and get a sim

Use the Google Hangouts app to make free calls home to the US, even to landlines. You can use it on WiFi or with a SIM that has data. No need to use your SIM credit to make expensive calls with the SIM itself.

Chexbres is right, Orange offers really easy ways to top off your Orange mobicarte but neither of them have ever worked with my American cards. Only when I had a french card did it ever work for me.

I have done prior trips on wifi only but I think I am going to take the hit and get a sim

Melissa, who is your carrier? You may want to check with them as an alternative.

We use Verizon. They offer an international plan that is $10 for 24 hours, starting with the first call. It uses your regular data plan.

I think it depends on how you plan to use your devices. What would a sim bring to the table that you missed when you did Wi-Fi only? The Verizon plan worked well for us. We looked into sims, but it can get fiddly. On our last two trips to Europe we were able to do everything we wanted almost exclusively with Wi-Fi. My wife had a business conference call so we did have one $10 charge. She has elderly parents and we had the peace of mind that they could contact us or we could contact them if needed.

What would a sim bring to the table that you missed when you did Wi-Fi only?

For me, the biggest benefit of having mobile data with a SIM instead of just WiFi has been the ability to get real-time walking and public transit directions in Europe (e.g. walking around Paris - how to get from A to B by walking or by metro or bus?). With Google Maps or other map apps, this is really easy. Google Maps does have an "offline" mode for driving directions but not for walking or public transit directions. Not having to rely on paper maps or bus/train schedules anymore has saved me an enormous amount of time getting around on my last few trips.

SIM cards are so cheap these days that I wouldn't dream of not having one in Europe anymore. $10/day for Verizon is OK if you have a short trip or are a complete technophobe and can't find someone to help you setup a SIM. It is possible to buy a SIM and set it up before you leave for Europe, so you won't have to "fiddle" with it while on vacation (perhaps not a French SIM, but other countries like the Netherlands and the UK don't require SIMs to be registered with your passport, so you can buy them online and have them mailed to the US). If people who need to reach you by phone can text or email you and say, "Please call me!" you can do that for free (to the US) with Google Hangouts, even to landlines. You can receive calls on Google Hangouts too, if you get a Google Voice phone number to go with it.

Thanks again
I am going for 2 weeks so the $10 for Verizon will not be good. I am going to get the sim for walking directions pulling up train tickets and uber

I fly out tomorrow

Hope you all have a great weekend

Melissa, have a great trip!!

Hi
I just did the holiday plan on my iPhone 5S best thing. I walked into orange across from the St Michael fountain and in 10 minutes my phone worked like home

Such a comfort to have uber and walking directions

I would highly recommend

Uber only goes to the airports and train stations if you use their app and pay in advance. Also, Uber cannot use the dedicated taxi lanes to get into Paris, so your trip will be slower.
You won't be able to flag an Uber in the street. There are surge prices with Uber, so be aware of that.
It's easier to take a regular taxi, in my opinion.

We just got back from our trip and found that all Orange wanted to sell us was the Orange Holiday. It's only good for 14 days (not long enough for our trip), and costs 40 euros to get the SIM card and the phone/data plan. We wanted to just buy a SIM card and then get a top-up Mobicarte plan for 20 euros instead. On the Orange website, they have a deal to order a SIM card online for only 3 euros. If you can plan in advance, perhaps see if you can order it and have it delivered to your hotel. Alternatively, the only Orange store location in Paris we were able to find that sells an individual SIM card, independent of any plan, is the one by the Opera Garnier. They charge 10 euros, and then you can buy any prepaid plan you want after that.

All that being said, because of unforeseen issues with our phone, we ended up not getting a SIM card and prepaid plan until we left Paris, and wow, was it cheaper in Germany! 10 euros for the Vodafone SIM card, 1.25 GB data, and 200 talk/text, which was plenty for us. Free roaming included now as well--it's a new rule in the EU. So if you are travelling to multiple countries on your trip, I'd try to see which has the best deals if you have that flexibility.

Barbra - you can go to any phone store and buy an inexpensive phone for around 20 EU with a camera option.

Barbra, f you buy an Android phone, then you can install the Google Hangouts app on it. (On Android, you need a second app called Hangouts Dialer too.) You can use Google Hangouts to make free phone calls to the US, even to landlines, and you can do that from WiFi, even if you don't have a SIM card. Just dial the phone number (in Europe, add +1 in front of the US phone number to call it).

Google won't let you call phones without first verifying an existing phone number - but this is tied to your Google account, not to a specific phone. If you have a US smart phone, install Google Hangouts + Hangouts Dialer on it - presumably through your Google account. Verify your US phone number on it (Google will ask you to do this - but if Hangouts was already installed and you never used it before, you'll need to go verify it most likely.) Once you've verified a US phone number with that Google account, then you can login to that Google account on any new phone you buy even in Europe - and make free phone calls with Hangouts home to the US.

Try Hangouts in the US before you leave for Europe to make sure you can make phone calls.

Andrew:

Conversely, can you use Google Hangout and Hangout Dialer to call a European phone number in Europe?

Tim:

Conversely, can you use Google Hangout and Hangout Dialer to call a European phone number in Europe?

Yes, Tim, you can use Hangouts/Hangouts Dialer to call a European phone number from anywhere that you have an internet connection (data or WiFi). But calling a non-US number isn't free - it costs a few cents per minute. Like Skype (Microsoft), Google makes you buy calling credit in blocks of $10 so you can draw it down a few cents for each call.

A SIM card comes with the phone. The agent will unlock it and make sure it works.
You can purchase a Mobicarte to top up the minutes or data you use.
International calls are included, but might be more expensive than French calls.

I have used my US credit card - inform your bank, first - to do this.
Or, you can use certain ATMs to top up.