Experiences from travelling Part I - France
 

I've been a regular visitor of this great site for a while now, but only ever really taken (i.e. searched/asked for help) rather than given, so with the end of 2007 approaching I thought I'd share some knowledge from some of my trips. It's questionable how useful most of this information will be, but here goes...

February 2007: A long weekend in Paris.

We were only there from Thursday to Monday, but I didn't (and still don't) have an International SIM so with the very kind help of Jibku I got an NRJ SIM via Ebay France. I'm not sure that NRJ provides the best options for a longer term stay in France (in terms of rates etc) but it was only €2 with €6 credit which for such a short stay, you can't complain!

I didn't make particularly extensive use of the NRJ SIM but signal reception everywhere in Paris (it roams on SFR) was always very good and I experienced no issues with calls, sms or even the little data I used attempting to get JahJah to work!

One possible weakness for this SIM for the International traveller) is it seemed that all the automated services (balance check etc) were French-only. Unfortunately it's a long time since I studied French, so my grasp of the language is poor so if your French is like mine, you may struggle. Having said that, NRJ does provide a portal via there web site through which you can access your account; this is a bit easier to deal with if you can use the internet when you need to.

Next up: using 3 in Ireland.