A lot?
There are the free france ones, even LeClerk have some good deals.
Obviously depends how much you actually need, as we watched films in the evenings sometimes I got an EE sim which is 80gb for £18 as that suited what I wanted. Lebara have some great sim deals often best via comparisson sites. £6.99 for 10gb is one I use for cctv and includes 100 minutes of international calls which is very handy.
Its been a few years since I gave up giffgaff so maybe they have changed but it was good if you were only UK, like me the hassle of buying a goodybag before I left, then having them gobble that up first when I returned before switching to my UK allowance is probably illegal now or are they still doing it? In truth its just worth shopping around every now and then.
I’ve been living in France for 10 months now, and I have kept my UK sim alive for banking, family,etc. I use Smarty which is a subsidiary of Three, They charge £20 a month *unlimited everything, I have no problems connecting to the net nor have I ever had problems ringing UK or texting, Internet-wise I only use it when camping and I get good speeds watching Netflix etc. It usually picks up the strongest signal to where I am staying. On the other hand my French sim is a nightmare Syma mobile which I am in the throes of getting rid, bad connections, slow or even no internet connection.
*caveat to above Smarty do cap your internet to 10GB a month whilst abroad, so it may be better to get one of their lower cost sims.
I get full data roaming, calls etc in Europe, just like in the UK. I’m going to pick up a French SIM so I have a French number, but there’s no other reason.
I you have a dual sim phone you could keep your UK number as a pay as you go (so no more costs) and get a French sim only - the packages are cheap for unlimited calls and 80gb data for approx 10 euros a month)
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I have dual sim phone and i am going to get a replacment sim only deal to replace my syma sim.
I have gone with Reglo mobile (part of Leclerc) it seems fine.
You may find your UK contract will stop at some point if living in France, mine was after 12 months (I was with Three).
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I still have my virgin uk sim in a dual sim phone but contemplating getting shot of it as rarely use it now after a year - but pressing that cancel button does seem to be difficult, after having the nr so long 
is there a way I could transfer my nr to a pay as you go when I’m resident in France or do I need to base a new sim on a UK address???
I did this without issue - just phone the company to let them know you want to downgrade to PAYG - you don’t need a new sim for this.
Unfortunately virgin don’t do pay as you go now, so I’d need to change provider, so my question remains.
When you contact Virgin to cancel, ask them for a PAC code and give that to your new provider.
Alternatively, send an SMS text message with the word ‘PAC’ to 65075 to begin the process
Your provider will reply by text within a minute. They will send you your PAC switching code which will be valid for 30 days. Their reply must also include information such as any charges that you have to pay if you’re leaving your contract early.
Great stuff - thanks alot 
now just need to find a pay as you provider I can migrate to now I’m not in the UK - any suggestions gratefully received
I’m sorry to be the harbinger of doom, but I think that to migrate a UK number to a new phone, it needs to be in the UK so I suspect you won’t be able to do it while you’re in France.
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Well, I guess I need to consider either transferring on my next visit to the UK or cancelling - hey ho 
Just get the sim card sent to a relative and get them to use the sim in an unlocked phone, and they can post you the sim to use already registered in uk.
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