Totally Frenched Out

From the blogger formerly known as Samdebretagne

Monday, June 8, 2015

Metro News

I'm about half-way through my 3 crazy month travel spree:
  • Week 1- near Cholet
  • Week 2- Thailand
  • Week 3- China
  • Week 4- home (woohoo!)
  • Week 5- near Cholet
  • Week 6- Istanbul
  • Week 7&8- Thailand
  • Week 9&10- US
  • Week 11- Return to France
  • Week 12- near Cholet
  • Week 13- nothing booked yet, but that's still a ways out...
It's starting to make me regret getting annual passes for the metro, the gym and the cinema...but oh well, too late now.  And I hate using the individual metro tickets anyways, I always end up with a million of them everywhere, and never know if they've been used or not, etc.

But I did actually take the metro yesterday and picked up one of the free newspapers, so I thought I'd share a few interesting articles.

First of all, the Regional Tourism Committee has started renting out these little wifi boxes to tourists in order to give them better mobile access during their vacation.  The box is about the size of a telephone, has a 6h battery span, and allows you to connect up to 10 devices to it.  There are about 100 available, and you can rent them at the information booths at CDG and Galeries Lafayette.  The cost is pretty reasonable too - 7,90€ per day. 

There was a second offer for tourists too - Appart'City is offering a special for the month of June that allows customers to name their price for a hotel room.  The promotion is valid all over France and can be booked online at www.appartcity.com.

And lastly, if you don't like speaking in French on the phone or can never get your doctor to pick up, there is a new website called www.RDVmedicaux.com.  The site has over 2600 general practitioners and specialists (including ophthalmologists) in over 500 cities through France, and basically lets you book a doctor's appointment as you would a train ticket. They will send you a confirmation via SMS, as well as a reminder SMS the day before your appointment.  I can see how something like this would be extremely practical, both in helping you find an available doctor near you and also during les vacances.  I know there have been times in the past where I've had to call as many as 10 doctors before finding one available during the month of August!


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2 Comments:

Blogger Edna said...

It was so wonderful to see you in Shanghai!! I saw news about the wifi box, and was excited until I got to the pricing -- 8 euro/day sounds steep, that'd work out to 240 euro for a month's stay! I'm still trying to figure out how to get a tourist SIM from Orange or Boygues...

June 9, 2015 at 4:30 AM  
Blogger Lil said...

What were you doing near Cholet? If you've heard my friend's gf going on about how boring it is there... ;)

Edna - for nearly my first year in France, I used Orange's pre-paid SIM which I topped up, then used the credit to pay for data add-on at €7/8 per month. Mind, it's not unlimited data but then I don't use that much data on the go so it suited me well.

June 19, 2015 at 3:05 PM  

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