From Andria Krewson:
File under stuff you need to settle before you go:

AT&T and iPhones: Don’t go there, unless you have money to burn. Students can take the phones if they want to use them just like iPods for tunes and contact lists: Put the phone in airplane mode under settings, and don’t turn airplane mode off. Wifi is available in numerous places in big cities and in some cafes in smaller cities. I used this technique when visiting for a week in November. The feature I was most glad to have: the camera. I used hotel wifi to catch up on news in the evenings. Note: My daughter left her iPhone at the Charlotte airport, by mistake, before she took off, but managed to check in with me through Facebook at her hotel after landing. Traveling with a group helps here too: Borrowing a friend's phone for a quick check-in works.

Buy a local phone (or world phone) with prepaid minutes: My daughter bought and used one of these, and could send and receive texts, at a price, as well as get international calls. Those international calls and texts were pricey, so we didn’t use it much, but it was an emergency lifeline and allowed her to communicate cheaply with fellow students in the same town. If you don’t want to put the student through the hassle of figuring this purchase out overseas, try some of the cheap international stores along Central Avenue in Charlotte (or wherever your town might be.) Stores that cater to recent immigrants are used to dealing with international phones, but be wary. The phones, especially if secondhand, could lack basic requirements such as chargers that will work in the country to which you’re traveling. My daughter used a charger converter that we bought at Sharon Luggage before she left. She used it primarily for her computer. Note: blow dryers from the United States suck too much power for most French outlets. Get a converter or get a wash-and-go hairstyle.

Verizon: I have no clue. Anyone know? Any more tips?

Go deeper: Check out this French phone post from Doc Searls and comment thread if you really want to go deep into the phone research. It seems to me that generally the French are less wired than we are, and that's either a cultural difference or the price of data in France in general. Face-to-face conversations count for much more.

Image: Lousy snapshot of daughter's French pay-as-you-go-phone. It's from SFR, and here's the company's site in French. If you're planning to upgrade a cell phone anyway or have money to burn, SFR has a Nexus One available apparently.