Preferred phone esims for France

I used to buy a sim card when travelling, and it is less expensive, but it is so much easier to just pay your US cell phone provider - for example we have AT&T, and it is $10 a day, max of $100 a billing period for the same service we have at home. The 2nd phone is $5 a day. I think other carriers are less expensive.

Several of my online accounts require 2-factor authentication to access, and I am only able to do that if I have access to texts on my registered mobile phone number. I can't remember which account but we needed this on our last trip.

If you use your US cell phone provider you have web access / maps / timetables from the moment you land.

On a past trip to Paris I did purchase an Orange tourist sim card at an Orange shop close to our first hotel in Paris but that meant I had to have printed directions/maps from the airport to the first hotel.

Depends on how long you are staying and what you need it for. Orange has a 14 day plan that includes a telephone number. If you don’t need a French phone number, you might try Airalo for data only for a lot less money (although they also offer plans with an Austrian phone number). I haven’t used mobimatter. I have used Airalo in about 10 countries.

An eSim can be set up at home, turned on while flying, and be ready to go when you turn off Airplane mode. Sometimes I need the goofy two factor authentication code also - if I can’t do without it, I simply turn on my home cell plan and pay $10 for THAT day, rather than paying $10 every day.

I used data-only Airalo eSIMs in Poland and Turkey earlier this year. Inbound texts to my home phone number weren't disrupted. I did have to do a bit of Googling to figure out how to enable outbound texts from that number. I have Google Fi service, so texts are free even when I'm traveleing.

Thanks, everyone. It's a long trip so I'll probably do the esim....

Ran into a post about Airalo and TikTok in Europe. Seems like there were problems for some users. Just a heads up in case you're considering it. I ended up going for Textr eSIM after reading that.

We have used the Orange holiday e-sim in the UK, Germany, Spain and Portugal without any problems. Being able to make telephone calls or send and receive texts is invaluable. Orange is a French company. It would be a no-brainer if you are traveling in France.