Paris - a city unplugged
Posted by MattE on 22 Oct 2006 at 09:39 pm | Tagged as: Media
I have been meaning to write about my experiences in Paris since my return from the French metropolis, so here is a short post on my experiences getting internet access.
Generally I found internet access hard to find anywhere in Paris (or anywhere in France and Emgland for that matter). Before leaving on the trip I specifically booked accommodation that had WiFi access.
From the start I confused access with connectivity. Yes places had access, but the signal was so weak and the connection speed when we did manage to connect was so dreadfully slow it was virtually impossible to check emails, let alone to any meaningful file transfers.
The staff at the various accommodations had no interest either - because the service providers had sold them on the concept that once the wireless modem was set up, all was automatic, the suffering customer simply paid the excorbidant rate per hour via the sign on page and they would make their share of the revenue.
It got to the stage when staying at other than prebooked places outside of Paris, that we would take the laptop into the lobby, try to bring up at least the sign-on page for the WiFi service before even asking if they had a room available. Sure we had some strange looks, but we also did not stay at a lot of hotels…
The other option of course were internet cafes.
Despite keeping my eyes open, I only ever did see one internet cafe in Paris. Another time, on asking in a computer games shop where the nearest internet cafe was, I was told I needed to hop on the Metro and travel four stops as there were no internet cafe’s in that Quarter.
Four stops represents several kilometres. For a city with a huge numer of tourists, I have expected internet cafe’s aplenty.
So if you are thinking about accessing the internet in Paris (or other parts of France or in England from my experience) then perhaps look at a mobile phone with high speed connection and connect it to your laptop. At least you wil be able to access the online world plus have the advantage of using your familiar keyboard!
Technorati tags Paris | internet access | WiFi
I too have had a debarcle trying to access the internet overseas. Its just so sloppy. One of my colleagues Michael Kiely just came back from America and he said that connecting to the net was easy and just superb. He would just sit down in a cafe, hotel or airport, turn on his wireless and bingo he was connected to the net. The yanks are great with their service mentality and perhaps it is a little stronger than the French.
I don’t entirely understand. I’ve never had difficulty finding an Internet café nearby in Paris — not that I’ve looked in the last few months, so maybe things have imploded recently. A Google search turns up a number of lists, though they may be outdated (the Webbar, rue de Picardie, hasn’t been around for a long time, for example). I rent a holiday apartment annually that has superb access using the wi-fi in my computer, faster than I have at home (Switzerland), and that’s fast. There ARE disadvantages from North America: the two hotels I’ve used in Paris in the past year both have good access, but you have to pay, whereas North American hotels I’ve used offer free access. And the French keyboard is impossible to use by outsiders — the Swiss keyboard is different from the American but not that different. My experience in French hotels outside Paris has not been good at all, though. I’ll be in Paris next month, so will keep my eyes open.
One area in particular was around the Opera building.
Here is Australia in any tourist area there is no shortage of internet cafe’s - the competition is quite fierce!!
I DO agree with the comment about the keyborad - the French ones certainly take some getting used to!!
“My†apartment is adjacent to Les Halles, and most of my experience is in the 1st to 4th districts, but I can’t imagine that the university area in the 6th would be badly served–but who knows: I was at a conference at the University of Nantes in June and things didn’t really work properly. The French keyboard alone though would drive me away (the Swiss keyboard only switches the Y and Z and a few special characters). At the moment I’m in Madrid and the other night saw a laundromat (in the centre) that had a row of terminals next to the washing machines. Now that’s the way things should be.