Hi Kathleen

That's great to know.  We'll use Al's work phone and wifi until I can get myself a sim card in Paris.  His employer has never complained about him using it on overseas vacations...  I think he'll be in for a shock when he retires and has to pay for a personal phone!

Hi Jacqui, 

The advice you have had already seems to have answered your question. However I thought I would share this wiki about mobile phone/data SIM plans around the world... Mostly the information is really up to date. It gives you a great overview of the rules and prices for each country, as well as coverage of the competing services and what systems/bands are in use. I have used it as a guide for Iran, Sri Lanka, Macedonia and Georgia (i.e. even less 'mainstream' countries), and it has been really helpful! Especially if buying a SIM in a country where you don't speak the language.

https://prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com/wiki/France

Have a good trip!

Am I right to surmise that for each company you have bought from you have not established an account, with possibility of recharge over the net by credit card, but rather have walked out of the store with a one month, (or ten days when used arrangement), supply of time, and would find another store to get that refreshed?

Once I bought a SIM from Lidl (actually Fonic) and could buy more time at LIDl's. I would pay 15 euros at the grocery and log in to my LIDl account to enter  a 15 digit code written on my LIDL receipt. It worked for a while, but when they discovered that my German address was not 100% legit, they cut me off without notice. 

Technically we can renew on our phones but the instructions are in German or Italian or French!  So we just head into the nearest storefront. 

Last year when we rode into Austria from Italy we both got an incomprehensible (for us) German text from Vodafone. We found the first young person we saw who translated and it meant ‘welcome to Austria where you can use your phone just like you did in Italy’. Well, thank you!  

Hi Catherine

That link was useful.  Thanks!

I think I've decided to go with Free Mobile, purchased at a kiosk so I can get an extendable one-month prepaid service.  That way I won't have to remember to send a registered letter to Paris to cancel a rolling-over "forfait".

Jacquie

Kathleen, we have been told that to buy a SIM in Germany you need a local address, yet your tale above seems free of this issue. Do you think I will be able to just go to Vodaphone in Leipzig and get set up?  Orange  (or rather French law) seems to just have a thing where you have to register your sim with the gov within 30 days, but it does not seem you need a local address. Can one buy Orange outside of France?

Steve - I have an account with Le French Mobile that I set up in 2015 and have found it easy to use. I can recharge both my credit and my data from my phone/computer. They have several France and EU packages, the EU are a little more expensive. Besides France, I’ve used it in Italy, Austria, Germany, Netherlands without problems. They will ship SIM cards to anywhere in the world. The data expires but the credit doesn’t, so I usually leave a small amount of credit in my account and recharge before each trip to Europe. This way I always have the same phone number. The carrier is Orange, but I don’t remember doing anything with verification/cancellation. All the info is on their web site - and in English. 

We have never needed a local address, either with Vodaphone or Orange, so I think you should be okay there. We are looking forward to your tour. I honestly can’t remember about Orange in France!

I'm going to gamble on Vodaphone. One advantage, it it's wrong you won't hear about it, 'cause we'll be incommunicado (lol).  Actually we do have a Sim called a Onesim that does work, only it's costly to use.

Rachel went for the Orange Vacation Sim. It will be interesting to see how it works out. The goofy French guys (Orange) sell this as being good for 14 days, though presumably you can reload it. Only I have not been able to find out what the reload offers are. Rachel is coming up to her first 14 days now, so soon we will have a report.

Hi Jacquie

  By far the simplest is to walk into a mobile-phone company such as Orange, or even into a supermarket, and buy a phone. They cost little because the profits come from the calls you make.

I led a tour of North Americans and took them into the nearest Orange shop (it was probably Orange but only because it was nearest) and they were out again with their new phones in moments. Using a phone shop has the advantage that the staff can probably explain everything in English, which is improbable in a supermarket.

You'll get coverage almost everywhere, certainly compared to Canada. If there are dead spots, you rarely have to go far to be back in range. 

The advantage of a European phone is that calls within Europe will no longer be trans-continental. With your 001 number (US and Canada), calling the house next door entails a call to your local network and then back across the Atlantic. That was what I warned my group, anyway, and they were happy to spend the small sum for a local phone.

Mobile-phone calls in Europe can be more expensive than conventional calls. Not a lot more but more nevertheless if the phone operator doesn't have a deal of some sort. Again, you'll be able to ask. 

There are no roaming charges within the European Union, thanks indeed to the European Union, but there will be if you stay with your Canadian operator.

  If I can help in any other way, don't hesitate to ask.

p.s. When will you be here, and where?