Smartphone water damaged, problem accessing whatsapp account

[villemiami]

My US smartphone is water damaged. I didn't back up whatsapp. My kids have a US smartphone with their whatsapp account. I am in vacations in FRance, I'm using a French SIM card on their smartphone. They can access their whatsapp account fine. I want to use their smartphone to access my whatsapp account. I tried settings-Account-Change number, but it says "the phone number you entered doesn’t match your account’s”.
I don't want to delete their whatsapp account to make mine work. If I buy a new smartphone in France, will I be able to use my whatsapp account there?
If not, Ill have to wait 35 days to go back to USA and use my old US sim card.

 

[Rukbat]

If I buy a new smartphone in France, will I be able to use my whatsapp account there?

Probably, but ask WhatsApp to be sure. And if you do, check the frequencies your carrier in the US uses, and the frequencies the phone can access, to make sure you can use it in the US. Also get a written guarantee from the store that using your French SIM won't region-lock the phone. (If it does, frequencies or not, it won't work with a North American SIM.) And make sure that the phone isn't SIM-locked.