I am a Luddite...I have a Tracfone that I only pay $20 for every three months, and I don't even use those minutes up. So I am clueless about real cell phones and I'm going to Paris for 7 weeks and will need a phone to keep in touch with friends there and to call home. I looked at old posts here, and they are several years old. Since technology changes so fast, I'm hoping someone will tell me the latest and best info on what I should do about getting a phone in Paris. I assume I should get the phone there, instead of buying one here.

Thanks for any help.

You need an unlocked, quad-band GSM phone. You should be able to buy one on eBay. You can then buy a prepaid SIM in France once you get there, insert it into the phone, and then you'll have a local French phone number. (and incoming calls should be free.) Calling North America from France may eat up minutes fast on your prepaid SIM, though, so you may want to use something like Skype on a laptop or tablet (assume you will have one) to make occasional cheap calls home or receive them.

If you are from the States, then I suggest you switch your service provider to T-Mobile, if only for the time you're in France. Overall, it's less expensive than buying a local sim, except for the incoming calls.

Robert, I'm a very satisfied T-Mobile customer who used my phone in France and Germany in April and took advantage of the Simple Choice calling plan for those 20 cents/minute calls (and FREE WiFI calls).

My T-Mobile cell phone is my only phone (other than my Google Voice/Gmail phone and the possibility of Skype). So I'm not paying "extra" for cheap calling in Europe - it's a bonus on top of the service I already pay for.

But for someone like Nancy who spends only $20 every three months on a prepaid cell phone (presumably because she already has a landline), it seems hardly worth it to sign up for a $50/month T-Mobile plan (and she'd need two months of it) - and that doesn't include a phone! She'd need to buy a GSM phone anyway either for T-Mobile or for a French pre-paid SIM. Will she spend significantly more than $100 on prepaid minutes in Paris? (with free incoming calls, something we T-Mobile users don't get?) Only then would signing up for T-Mobile make any sense at all.

No, don't get one there (well, you can but it's easier if you don't). Go on e-bay or Amazon and buy an unlocked quad-band phone for under $30. Then go to Europe and buy the SIM cards that you need (or, in some cases, like for France, order them ahead of time). Mine ($26 on Amazon) holds 3 SIM cards. I use one in the USA, one in France, and I have a spare to hold a SIM for any other country I'm visiting - well, any of the three SIM portals can be switched out at any time for a SIM for anywhere.

Thank you all very much; this was just the information I needed.

She can still sign up with T-Mobile and only use the service for two months (no contract). The phone she can purchase on EBay or Amazon as noted. No reason to buy a French sim card if she is going to use it to call home, or locally.

The cost of making local calls on a pre-paid program is about €0.34 EUR/minute ($0.46/min) verses $0.20/minute with T-Mobile, at least it is with my Spanish pre-paid phone. The free Wi-Fi calling is also hard to beat.

I highly recommend the Lebara SIM. I ordered it before I left for Paris last year - I met my husband there on a whim and needed to keep working while away, so had to make lengthy calls to the US. You can get the Lebara for free (sent to your US address) before you leave (although I ordered mine on Amazon prime for $25 - it came overnight loaded with 7.50 euros worth of calls).

http://www.lebara.fr/

Charges to the US are 0.09E per minute, which you can track online as they are automatically charged to your credit card. Incoming calls are free and you will know your number so you can give it to people before you leave. I put my Lebara SIM in an old unlocked global Blackberry, but any unlocked quad GSM phone would work.

Reception was excellent - I had 1+ hour call to LA every every evening and nobody realized I was out of the country. I also used Verizon's $25 data plan for my iPhone, using my regular US number for texting and email, but the Lebara was so efficient and cheap that I found myself calling friends all over Europe just to say hello.

You can buy a local SIM card in France, but I like to arrive with my phone already set up. So I buy a pre-paid international SIM card before I even leave home. My preferred service is G3 Wireless based in Canada, and you can buy cell service/ data packages/ bundles from them. Have an amazing time in France and good luck with your phone!