Prepurchased cell phones for France

But EuroBuzz and Modal sell cellphones that work all over Europe for $29 and you are only charged for calls you make.I heard that a phone purchased in France is more expensive. I am asking someone who has tried one of these companies to rate their experience.

You should edit your title to include the companies' names. As written, it sounds like you want general adviice rather than specific experience.

I was very concerned that my wife and I each have cell phones in case we were separated or for emergencies. Took an unlocked phone and bought a prepaid in France. The reality of using the phones was a whole nother matter.... At the very least have the store set up the phones because the prompts are all in the local language and not in English. Simple tasks like checking voicemail are difficult at best. Study up on dialing local and international because if you are unaccustomed to how dialing prefixes work when you are trying to troubleshoot an issue with a car or hotel it is not a good time to learn. If you have made all your reservations online and need to change plans, you will not be accustomed to calling the airline (for example) and you probably won't have the local number and be stuck trying to call a U.S. based 800 line plus charges and international prefixes. Again, it is confusing when you are trying to change things on the fly. My wife and I never came close to being separated and knew to go back to the last place we were together if it happened. Having one phone came in handy once or twice in three weeks but looking back the expense and hassle of chargers and plugging them in every night was more trouble than it was worth. For us, one of the nice things about being on vacation is not being connected to a cell phone. A single ipad with occasional wifi is a much better thing to travel with than costly cell phones.