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I will be driving through France soon and would like to have a local prepaid sim with data capabilities. I found a very interesting sollution in the French Connection, but I need a French delivery address. I don't have that on such a short notice, so I am looking for a plan that I could buy while on route (gas station, shopping malls, etc)

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My name is Olivier, from FrenchConnection. The thing we usually do is deliver in advance in the hotel or camping where you will be staying overnight. As mentioned by someone earlier, we can still organize a collection in Paris gare du nord (it does not appear anymore on the website, but if you ask politely, we will of course do it).

Also a very useful solution if you do not have a delivery address: Poste Restante You give the address of a post office, and specify "POSTE RESTANTE" The device will be waiting for you there. To collect it, show your ID, pay the 0,60€ fee (sorry we cannot pay it from our side) and here you are :-)

To find the most convenient post office, check their website (in French) La Poste or get in touch with us!

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  • Pity i learnt about this on my way back, you should consider sending to Belgium ;) Will try it on my next visit
    – user141
    Commented Aug 12, 2012 at 15:40
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Sure you can.

There's a number of options.

Here's the most basic one. If you just need to have a french number for a week and then throw it away, just go to any post office (La Poste), which you can find literally everywhere and they sell both only sim-cards (10 Euros cost, 5 Euros credit included) or with the basic phone (30 euros cost, 10 or 15 euros credit included). The recharge cards are sold there as well.

Actually prepaid cards are sold everywhere (in all the Tabac stores, all the major mobile providers sell them as well), but La Poste Mobile is really easy to find and it looks like it's a bit cheaper (the page with the details in French).

If you need something more long-term, then you need to find any mall of the Leclerc network and buy the card from their virtual provider (here's the page with the cost in French).

The difference between these two is that La Poste Mobile sim-card has a really short expiration period. I.e. if you recharge your card with 10 euro credit it will expire in a week even if you don't use it 100%. But the Leclerc card will expire in a year no matter how much credit you recharge it with.

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  • Does the leclerc one do data?
    – user141
    Commented Jul 27, 2012 at 15:11
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    Yes, there's data plan available. 9.90 for 250 Mbs per month and 13.90 for 500 Mbs per month (leclercmobile.fr/prepaye-reglo-mobile/formules-options/…)
    – Nikita R.
    Commented Jul 27, 2012 at 15:50
  • The data is available for all the prepaid cards, but I guess the conditions and the cost vary. Somewhere it will be cheap and working out of the box. Somewhere it will be working out of the box, but extremely expensive by default and becomes cheaper only if you activate a certain offer.
    – Nikita R.
    Commented Jul 27, 2012 at 15:53
  • It is a pity I can't unaccept the answer. This answer appears to be totally incorrect. The package leclerc sells is only for phone and sms. Even if you only are interested in calling and sms, it is totally ridiculous to buy this option, since the roaming fees are usually cheaper then the prepaid offers by leclerc and the post. The above answers is NOT right!!!!
    – user141
    Commented Aug 11, 2012 at 19:31
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    -1 i tried to buy it at leclerc, but they don't have prepaid data plan, only with a subscription
    – user141
    Commented Aug 12, 2012 at 15:59
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According to their website, there is an option to collect the device yourself. The only possible place is Gare du Nord (Northern Paris mainline station). This is a solution if your itinerary goes through Paris.

Another solution is abroadband. More expensive per megabyte, but works all over the world.

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I am heading to France again. Before ordering a frenchconnection device, I did yet another google search on the topic. Tripadvisor had the answer..

...

Print off the following page from the SFR website before you travel (sfr.fr/mobile/…) which shows details of the prepaid iPad 3G data micro SIM

...

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  • I don't speak French unfortunately...
    – Grzenio
    Commented Jul 10, 2014 at 15:29
  • @Grzenio you only need to show printout to an SFR salesperson in a an SFR shop
    – user141
    Commented Jul 10, 2014 at 15:33
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The major prepaid carriers have SIMs and their stores are everywhere in Paris. You can even get a prepaid SIM in the post office. SFR, Bouyges, and Orange are all decent options.

You'll need to show your passport and fill out some paperwork to get the card, which means you can't get it till you arrive.

I suppose you can try creating a Google Voice number and have it forward to the SIM once you know the number. I don't know if that's actually feasible

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I am from LeFrenchMobile, if you are looking for a cheap data prepaid option you can choose our DataSIM, we deliver anywhere you want or you can find our SIM cards in shops in Paris or the Alps for now, the list of distributors is here.

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