Getting a French SIM Card, Part 1

Since I can’t yet use my French bank account, I can’t set up a monthly phone plan. In the meantime I decided to get a prepaid SIM card so that I can have a French phone number. On Monday after stopping by the school in the morning with Virginie, I took a bus into Cannes because there are three different phone companies that have stores on the same road. I started at SFR because the monthly plan I hope to get is through SFR. After waiting in line for approximately 45 minutes I was able to speak to someone about the prepaid SIM options. They seemed pretty expensive, so I said I would think about it. I next went to Orange, waited for another 45 minutes, and got the listing of their SIM options. I figured that if I was going to check at two places, I might as well check the third also, so I then went to Bouygues.

The choice was not clear because there were so many different options. There were cheaper plans that only included data, some that also included calls and texts within France, and some that included international calls. Some plans lasted for 1 week, some 2 weeks, and others 1 month. After getting the options from the 3 different stores, I went back toward the train station to use Starbucks’ Wifi to call my parents to get their advice on which one I should pick. We ended up deciding that I should get a 1 month plan from Orange that included data and calls and texts within France, and that I could just talk to family and friends in the US using various apps on Wifi. It ended up being 10 euros for the SIM card and 20 for the plan that included unlimited calls and texts within France and 1 GB data for one month.

While I was near the train station, I stopped by to buy a Carte Jeune, a card for people under 26 that allows us to purchase train tickets at a reduced price. The card itself costs 50 euros, but over 8 months it should save me a lot more than that.

Finally I went back to Orange and bought and installed the SIM card. It was a really nice day and I had been hoping to have some time to spend on the beach, but getting the SIM and Carte Jeune ended up taking all day, so I’ll have to go back to the beach another time.