I’m not sure, I’ve never asked her, although she is with Credit Agricole and with them having thier Britline they perhaps allow a UK number? Or she just doesn’t have it set up (surely elderly folk with no mobile must have that option). I’ll ask her next time I see her.
Credit agricole accepts a UK phone number. The account was opened when still resident in UK and contact details provided which they have used ever since without querying them… one of reasons why still have UK phone!
There may be a password option, tho’ I don’t recall that being an option when the two-step verifications started coming in.
As for 'elderly folk … ’ my pal George, the piano player in our jazz duo, is mirroring YT music videos from his iPad to his telly. He was 89 on 9th Dec. His digital piano is a monster of digital technology.
My god daughter’s dad is a composer, jazz-rock musician, still making albums - all done digitally now. His other ‘job’ is ‘painting’ illustrations for vintage aviation magazines using Photoshop and Corel Draw. He was 80 in July.
I’m 71. I had a Sinclair Z81 and every flavour of PC/Windows since and would be a long way up that creek sans paddle if this phone went AWOL.
I think that years are no impediment now. Simply competence or not. There are some on SF who appear ½ my age but declare themselves techno-drongos and receive advice from people my age or older
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You are quite right, very ageist of me, I apologise!!!
a French sim is clearly sensible…but would your friends in the uk call it and pay 30/40p a minute ? So clearly the answer is to continue with a uk number as well or use WhatsApp and not get paranoid about Big (brother) USA tech giants .
This is poor advice, everyone should be worried about them! Use an alternative that is safe like Telegram!
what is Telegram .
Developed in Russia, operating from Dubia…?
Think I’d rather risk MZ’s world as more chance of public scrutiny and therefore enforced transparency
EU plans 10 year extension to free roaming charges in Europe
Surprise surprise! 
https://www.threemediacentre.co.uk/content/three-uk-statement-on-roaming/
And EE after Christmas.
Ah diddums…Poor little Three-Hutchison(Hong Kong) is forced to bring in swingeing roaming charges in the UK.
This, after sneaking a clause 18 months or so ago into all contracts taken out, that forces an automatic price rise each year of 4.5% or so, PLUS inflation.
Then 5 months ago going from 3p per minute call to 10p per minute for customers who pay as they go. Plus huge increase in SMS charge.
How long ago was it Three said they have “no plans” to introduce roaming charges in Europe?
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Ironically the first story underneath this press release I linked to is about how they will “save people £187 million in mobile roaming charges after Brexit” presumably by not charging customers to roam…
I wonder if the rest will follow suite now 
Virgin and O2 users to not face EU roaming charges
No roaming charges but like Three (before they introduced their roaming charges) you are caught by their fair usage policy
Blockquote
Our Roaming Fair Usage Policy
Roaming in our Europe Zone is included in your tariff, so you can use data (subject to a roaming limit), make calls, and send texts just like you do at home. However, this service is only available for occasional travel (like holidays or short breaks) and not for long stays abroad.
What are our Fair Usage Limits?
Permanent Roaming
Using our services in our Europe Zone for more than 63 days in any four-month period is what we consider to be unfair use. If you do this we’ll send you a fair usage notification by text. If you continue to use these services after we’ve notified you, we’ll apply surcharges for further usage that we recognise as overage.
These surcharges are £3.50 per GB for data, 3.3p per minute for calls and 1p per text. The surcharges will appear on your next month’s bill. We’ll stop applying surcharges to your European Zone usage once the majority of your usage over the previous four months has been in the UK.
What options do I have?
You can continue to use your phone in our Europe Zone, but should be aware that usage will be charged at the rates given above. For example, if you use 1GB of data and 100 texts after receiving the notification, you’ll be charged an extra £4.50 - that’s £3.50 for the data and £1 for the texts.
If you find yourself living in the EU for a long period of time, it may be more cost-effective for you to buy a local sim card or take out a contract with a local network. You might like to check whether your phone’s locked to our network.
Worth noting that despite journalists spouting 3 as “the best network if you are regularly travelling abroad” they never were. They cap roaming at 25gb.
The EE roaming allowance by comparison is 50gb but clearly they didnt buy lunches for journalists.
During the pandemic EE allowed me to use All of my UK data allowance whilst roaming (80gb) so thank you EE.
Will that continue, who knows?
Three currently cap roaming at 12gb - used to be 20gb but they revised that a year or two ago.
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I intend to call EE to find out what their policy is likely to be going forward as they haven’t emailed me any changes to the current terms.