Cell phones in France

I am going to France in a few weeks - will be there about 5 weeks and will be using my cell phone daily to book accomodation. Would it be better ie cheaper to use my NZ Vodaphone or to buy a French prepaid SIM card for my phone when I arrive there. I land at Marseilles Airport would I be able to get one there and would it be easy to put more money into - on the whole I will only be at small places

its only recently that the french have allowed non residents to get french sim cards

so; some things you need to consider
- you may have to convince a shop owner to sell you a card
- you actually have to pay for sim cards here (20 euro or more)

the main providers here are orange, sfr and bouyges. check the web for prices and compare to the roaming rates for your own provider. sfr are alligned with vodafone, so you may get preferential rates when roaming with them

Janey is right, you have to buy a sim card and then what we call a "Recharge" (reload)
- "Mobicart" for Orange
- "Nomad" for Bouygues
- "La Carte" for SFR.

A "recharge" cost between 5 and 95 euros : http://www.sfr.fr/offre-sfr/particulier/sfr-carte/<BR><BR>Be careful that you phone is unlocked by home operator ! unless the sim card won't work...