I bought a Kindle 3G for my mother-in-law. At the same time, they ordered themselves two Kindle wifis. They live in France for a lot of the year, but will use their U.S. address and credit card to make the Amazon purchases.

They don't want the 3G because they are worried about unexpected 3G charges. It's hard to tell for certain, but I don't think there will be any. It looks like France charges VAT, but they do that whether you use the 3G service, or if you buy the book and download it onto your computer (I think).

They are planning on downloading ebooks to their computer, and then downloading them via USB cable to their Kindles. I think they will miss one of the best features of the Kindle (being able to download a book without the computer). I also think they are wrong about the 3G charges.

Can anyone here share their experience downloading ebooks to their Kindle in France?

I have a Kindle 3G/WiFi. Because it is GSM, it works fine in any country. I was just in France last week and downloaded seven books while there. In New Zealand last Christmas, I was downloading right and left. Probably downloaded 15 books there.

In addition, there are a lot of free WIFI zones (lots of Paris Starbucks) that can also give them a chance to download just in case their 3G isn't working well.

I used my Kindle 3G in Paris last year and received the following message after using the web browser to check email from the airport (using 3G not wi-fi):

"...There is no charge to use Whispernet 3G wireless outside the US to receive books, single periodical issues, access archived items, browse the Kindle store, or use the experimental web browser." An earlier part of the message does mention that there will be charges related to receiving newspapers, magazines, blogs and personal documents. I don't use my Kindle for any of these.

This info is really helpful. It's my understanding that you can't use Kindle wifi to download books in France; you must use the 3G. If that's wrong, let me know.

Actually, you CAN use WiFI depending on whether or not you can sign into it. As a matter of fact, in France, my Kindle has sort of been searching for WiFi first, asking me to try to connect, and then after I refuse that, it connects me to EDGE or something like that.

I can certainly sign into WiFi with the right passcodes depending on the places I am. I just don't choose to do that.

Want to add that the edition of Kindle you have dictates a lot. I originally owned Kindle 2nd generation which COULD NOT download in another country; I moved up to Kindle 3rd Generation (with Kindle Keyboard).

I used a Kindle last year when we were in France for the month of November (2010). Never used wifi with it. I even used their really basic browser to read/post on Facebook. We did pay a small fee so we could get the NY Times daily. It was great. I also had used it in May 2010 during a Paris/Amsterdam trip. In fact, a book I had pre-ordered arrived just in time for me to download it in the airport before our return trip.

OK, this is what I thought. Extra charges with 3G are related to periodicals, and personal files like pdfs and mp3s. There is no charge for 3G for book downloading.

And it's easy to avoid charges for PDFs--transfer via USB before you leave.