cellphones while in france

You should buy the unlocked phone here in the US but you don't need to buy the SIM card until you get to France. You can buy one there with prepaid minutes that can be easily recharged. Do a web search for "France SIM card" and find the one that will work best for you.

You can even buy a cheap phone with a few euros credit at supermarkets such as "Carrefour" here in France, for as little as 29 euros.

The SIM card has the minutes on it already. Until you know what your usage need is, just buy the smallest one and see how long it lasts. Most prepaid SIM cards lose any remaining value after a period of time, so unless you intend to go back soon, you don't want unused minutes left.

We have an unlocked GSM phone which I took to the local Phone House store where I bought a prepaid Virgin sim card. The staff installed it for me and activated it. Very easy to do. The sim came with some minutes, but I don't recall how many, plus I added more at the time of purchase; all told I think I spent about 25€ for more minutes than I could use in a month. I read that the Lebara sim and call rates is a better deal in France now, though I don't know if the Phone House sells that sim. To buy an unlocked phone, you can go on ebay or just wait until you get to France as suggested. If you get it here, you'll need to test it with a working sim card from a GSM network provider such as ATT or TMobile.

Thanks for all of your advice! It really makes it easier than trying to figure it out on our own!

Caryn, it would help to know whether you currently have a Cellphone, and which network you're with? Also, how long will you be travelling in France? ¶ You might have a look at the "travel phone" firms such as Call In Europe, Roam Simple, Cellular Abroad, Telestial or Mobal. They offer SIM's for those that have an unlocked quad-band GSM phone, and some offer rentals or phones for sale. ¶ One of the advantages of using a "travel SIM" is that most of these are post-paid, rather than pre-paid. That means there's never any worry about "running out of minutes" during a call or topping-up. The charges are billed to a credit card. ¶ Have a look at their respective websites and rate structures to see whether that might work for you. ¶ I used one of the above services on my trip this year, and found it to be a very reputable online business. Good luck!

Thanks, Ken. We have Verizon so we know our phones won't work. Our daughter changed plans and bequeathed us a beautiful, barely used Sprint phone but we can't use that either! So, that's how we learned that both of those networks (and their phones) are out of the question. With all of the new input from everyone, we will re-research and hopefully, not be as overwhelmed as we were before!!

This probably doesn't help you, but our friends brought their AT&T cellphone to France and had "4 bars" all over Provence, which they say they rarely get in the U.S. Their phone worked fine; I don't know what they had to pay for their calls.

Caryn, you might contact Verizon and ask about their Global Travel program. I believe they can provide a phone which will work on Europe for trips of 21-days or less.