Need a Cell Phone in France

John,
We use Verizon, so we called them and they sent us 2 phones to use overseas. All we did was charge them up and called Verizon. They turned off our phones we use everyday and turned on the oversea phones. Then we used our same phone number we use everyday overseas and our family could reach us with phone numbers that they normally reach us. Hope this makes sense.

We have Verizon too so I will head for the nearby store soon. I didn't think of that!

Thanks.

John, Skip verizon unless your family calls you. calling them is expensive compared to what you can do in France
I am in Paris right now. If you get an unlocked quad or tri band cell phone (I got mine at raileurope.com) you can get a SIM at most Tobac shop. The cost per min to call the US is 40 c a min.
Verizon was charging me 1.50-1.99 when I was there in October.
I've seen a Lot of the younger kids use Skype... a voice over IP service. Europe is launching a Skype phone. Skype to Skype customers are free, and its pennies a minute to call a non skype customer. I'd recommend it if you plan on bringing a laptop. Otherwise,its just as easy to get a phone or sim here in france.
My current provider is Orange, and they also are a big provider in London too.

This may be too late to help you, but maybe for others...I bought a Nokia unlocked quad band phone and a French SIM card for a total of $59 from Brightroam.com (also bought an additional SIM card for my existing unlocked phone). It is PERFECT. Costs $.40/min outgoing (free incoming); $.50 to US. And you can get a toll free number for US people to call you. Do be somewhat careful about bringing unlocked phones from home: one of mine worked fine with the French card and the other one was useless. The Nokia one from Brightroam was just fine, though! It really has been a nice thing to have them. My husband and I have been able to meet up at museums and such so much easier.