[Gryphone]

Originally Posted by wco81

I was hoping to pick up something at the airport but that may not be the best option?

Usually you don't get cards with good tariffs at airports.

Some international SIMs aren't that much more expensive if at all?

Correct. You could even consider using a German D2 Callya card in France, you'd have to pay "only" 0,29€/minute plus 0,75€ per call.

3. Roaming between countries is way expensive, like around 2 euros a minute? EU is trying to change that but does that apply to prepaid SIMs or only to people with monthly plans?

The EU is changing that for prepaid cards too, however the regulation will take another two to six weeks, so it might not help you yet.

If I could have done some 3G surfing occasionally and paid say 10 euros each week, it might be worth trying out, since in the US, my phone doesn't support the 3G data bands. But it sounds really prohibitive just to sample even a little bit.

Anyone find things any different as far as UMTS data?

At least for Germany you could either use Simyo/Blau/Aldi with 0,24€/MB or Websessions with a Callya card for 2€/10€/15€ you get a flatrate for 15min/2h/24h, the third one even works in some either countries (including France).