France Trivia Advent Calendar, day sixteen, the Minitel

Advent day sixteen, Sparkling Rosé Ice Edition and Biere de Noel

Advent day sixteen, Wednesday 16^th December 2020

I think my advent calendar got its dates mixed up as surely the sparkling rosé Ice Edition I pulled out today, should have been in yesterday’s window to celebrate the end of lockdown. Oh well, never mind, Ed is a day late too as he forgot he didn’t need an attestation to walk the dog when he went out yesterday.

 

As I carried my laptop along the newly decorated landing this morning, on my way to my yoga nook, keen and eager to log into Zoom for my yoga class, I passed the office. Drifting through the door was Adrian’s voice as he began the introductions to the course he was running via Webex today, with delegates signing in from the UK. The next room along is Ed’s bedroom, where his online guitar lesson was just coming to an end, his conversations with his teacher in rapid French just audible above the music. I am so grateful that although we live in a small rural village, we are lucky to have a pretty decent internet service that allows all three of us to be logged in, on different platforms, taking part in video conferences, at the same time. Things have changed quite a bit from when we moved here in 2004 and we had to choose between having the phone line active or dialling in via the modem to check our emails or go online.

Keeping the gas bottle warm

 

Whilst we may have a pretty good internet service, we don’t have a mains gas supply in the village and just before morning coffee today, the gas bottle ran out. Back in pre-Covid-19 days, this would invariably happen the day after Adrian had left for the UK, meaning it was down to me to disconnect the old bottle, struggle in with the heavy new one, prise off the plastic seal (the most difficult part of the process) and connect it up using the special little red spanner. Thankfully, now my man is home, all I need to do is shout, although I did bring in the new bottle this morning as he was taking out the old one. It wasn’t quite the straightforward switch it normally is, as even with the new bottle connected, the hobs were struggling to keep alight. I have to admit it did cause a bit of a panic, as morning coffee is a necessity, and time was running out to get it brewed before the start of Adrian’s course, but the camping stove we use on bike trips came to the rescue. It might be quite a mild winter so far, but the outside temperature of 5º was obviously too cold for the gas to flow properly and the new bottle needed a bit of extra love and attention. Leaving the door off the cupboard, to ensure an ambient room temperature, and not rushing it to perform, seemed to work and this afternoon I successfully made another batch of leek and cauliflower soup. Phew, I did wonder if it would be microwaved lasagne for dinner this evening as this bottle was the last spare we had.

 

France Trivia advent calendar, day sixteen, Minitel

Keeping on a technology theme, the star of today’s trivia is the Minitel. This was a French invention from the 1970’s, that was rolled out throughout France in the early 1980’s and allowed French households and business to connect and interact online, through the telephone network. Using a terminal in your home, you could access an online telephone directory, have a mailbox, read online news and make purchases and travel reservations. It was the world’s most successful online service prior to the internet we know and love today, and although we never used it, I do remember the terminals at the post office when we arrived here in 2004. According to France Télécom, in 2009 there were still ten million monthly connections, but by 2012 they had retired the service as the world wide web had taken hold.

Speeding it up, slowing it down

Coming soon our fibre-optic junction box

Our French village is fairly unique in that we are just a small, unremarkable, rural French village, with no great frescos, vistas or historical monuments, situated seven kilometres from a small market town (with all facilities), and have less than four hundred inhabitants, but we still boast a bar, hairdressers, boulangerie/post office, library, small weekly market and active associations who organise social events as well regular activities including keep-fit and sewing. It is sadly true to say that not all French villages are like this, but having this sense of community is one of the things I love most about village life. However, links to the outside world are important too, especially communication links. How could I share my wonderful village life with you if it wasn’t for a reliable internet service?

When we arrived here in 2004 the internet was via a dial-up modem (remember them?) charged per minute and using the telephone line. The mobile phone signal was non-existent thirteen years ago, and isn’t much better now, but the arrival of broadband improved the internet, although with connection speeds sometimes as low as 0.2mbps there is still room for improvement.

Well, exciting news! Things in the village are quite busy at the moment and lots of the work that is going on is intended to improve our online life. Last week the telecoms guys were busy digging up the road to put in a clever junction box thingy that will (eventually) control our super-fast fibre-optic internet. Oh yes! Soon, the days of 0.2mbps internet speed – speedy it isn’t – will be gone for good.

The arrival of the fibre-optic October 2016

The process however is as snail-like as our original internet speed. The new telegraph poles and fibre-optic cable were installed a year ago. However all they currently do is arrive, pass through the village and head off elsewhere.

Fibre-optic arrives, but goes nowhere, just yet.

Their arrival has given a small improvement to our internet speed, some days up as high as 4.5mbps, but we have been promised more, although not just yet.

The junction box work has started, but is not yet finished and we know it will be March 2018 (or there abouts) before the new system is finally switched on, however we can wait. When it goes live we have been promised speeds of up to a stratospheric 90mbps, although somewhere nearer 20mbps is likely to be more realistic. 0.2mbps to 20mbps is 100 times faster than what we have had to put up with, so we’ll be happy with that, when it arrives.

Traffic lights in the village are usually a rare sight

No sooner had one set of workmen packed up their temporary traffic lights and diggers and moved on, another set arrived, but this time their work is being carried out with the intention to slow us all down. We may only be a small village, but our main road sees an average of 1000 vehicles passing through every day, and many of them do not respect the current 50km/hour speed limit. 

Creating a speed hump in the centre of the village

We will soon be the proud owners of four large speed humps, a new 30km/hour speed limit and hopefully a safer village for us all. This is especially important as almost ten percent of our population fall into the under ten years old age bracket, something else that sets us apart from many small, rural French villages.

And breathe

The flags of our commune bound in mourning

I know I have been a quiet blogger these last few weeks and I’m sorry. The events in Paris came at the end of a challenging week for me and the grey skies and damp days of last week didn’t do much to lift my mood, despite my own troubles having been firmly put into perspective. I don’t want to dwell on the attacks but one of the things I found most difficult was answering Ed’s questions. He is a sensible 15 year old, into music, conscientious (to a point) at school and thoroughly enjoying the increased freedom and time to hang out with his mates that being at lycée has given him, but he has a sensitive side too and is a worrier. When he asked me to explain how some people can go out and shoot random fellow human beings who were just going about their normal daily lives, I struggled to answer him. As a parent it is my job to answer his questions, to help him to understand the world he is living in and to make him feel safe and loved, but how could I give an answer when there seems to be no logical answer. The French President, François Hollande’s answer was to declare that France is at war with terrorism. The fact that my family are now living in a country that is ‘at war’ horrifies me. The President didn’t wait long to back up his words with direct action on ISIS strongholds in Syria, a country that is virtually crippled already and one whose citizens are fleeing in their thousands with many facing a retched winter with little or no food, shelter or clothing in a makeshift camp in Calais, France. This just proves to me that it is a mad and sad world we are living in and I wish I had the answer to make it a better one.

My initial reaction has been to retreat into the warm and fluffy world of books, to immerse myself in the lives of others, some who were real and recounting tales of travel, others who were fictional, but no less real in my head. I’m back now and thought I would share just a few of the personal challenges I have faced in the last few weeks, in no particular order, that I can look back and laugh at now. I also have lots of reviews to share with you in the coming days, including some festive themed books and Christmas gift ideas.

Being on the local council means attending meetings, but a two and half hour political meeting in French that lasted way past my bedtime was quite a challenge. It started with all 150 local councillors united in a moment of silence to remember those who lost their lives, but quickly became a heated political debate that I did my best to keep up with. I certainly slept well that night, but the following day felt rather like my brain had been run over with a steamroller. Sleep is a good healer, but when you have nocturnal visitors whose banging and crashing keep you awake half the night, the following day can be a struggle. Francine la fouine (a stone martin) left her recognisable droppings outside our dining room window before scaling the house wall and trying to break into the loft. I could hear the terracotta roof tiles being moved about and much I hate to think of a single, pregnant mother with nowhere to nest over winter, I would rather she didn’t set up home in our loft. Our builder has since been and straightened all the tiles she spent half the night trying to dislodge and it’s all gone quiet, so fingers crossed she has found more suitable accommodation.

The nice man from Orange

Living in a rural village and often being home alone there are few things more precious than my links to the outside world, so having had a flat battery in the car one week, followed by no internet and a dodgy phone line the following week, I wasn’t a happy bunny. I can now add using a car battery charger to my list of useful life skills and thanks to the lovely man from Orange (who made me smile by turning up wearing orange) we now have a brand new phone line coming into the house and the internet is back, yippee! Some people moan about customer service in France, but Orange were superb. They called me back when they said they would, they arrived to fix the problem when they said they would and everyone I spoke to was friendly and polite.

Tomorrow my American friends and family will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day. I’m thankful for the happy life I have in this small French village and the friends we have made here. I wish all those celebrating a Happy Thanksgiving xx

The importance of being connected

The importance of being connected

This summer marked our tenth anniversary of living in France and in that time many things have changed. When we arrived, one of the first tasks was to reconnect the telephone line and sign up to a basic dial up Internet service, mainly so we could check emails. Neither of our mobile phones (and back then they were just phones) had a service in the village, so for the first few days we were very cut off from the rest of the world and especially our family we had left behind. Thankfully we didn’t have to struggle with dial up for too long as within a few years broadband arrived in the village, partly due to us running a business here that required the Internet. It is painfully slow broadband at times, but better than dial up and as we are now a family with three mobile phones, three laptops and three iPads the Internet is important and it's very frustrating when it drops the connection. The mobile phone signal still isn’t great and although I survived the first few years without one and still don't have 3G, I couldn't imagine not having one. Now Ed is of an age when he is seeking independence, having a mobile with 3G means we let him go but are able track him when he is out on his bike with his friends. How different to when I was a teen of the Eighties and going out meant real freedom!

To celebrate our tenth anniversary we spent five days in Normandy this summer with Ade’s parents, and like stepping back in time we found ourselves in a rural gite with (shock) no Internet. Out of the five of us I am undoubtedly the one with the biggest online/social media presence and yet I was the only one who remained Internet free for the five whole days. Ed had been in the UK for a month so was delighted to hook back up on his 3G and contact his friends again. Ade managed to pick up his emails whenever he found an Orange Hotspot and my tech’d up in-laws chose to pay for the overseas 3G to stay connected. I missed it, but I survived and didn’t even have too many withdrawal symptoms.

This week it is Ed’s turn to be off line. He has been on a school trip for four days of walking, canoeing, camping and enjoying the outdoors with no phones, iPods or any other gadgets. This didn’t seem to bother him before he left, in fact he was more worried about leaving without a book and I wasn’t sure how he’d cope without having access to his musical instruments. However for some it was more difficult and one mother caused quite a scene at school on Tuesday morning, screaming and swearing at the staff when she was told her daughter couldn’t take her phone with her. It really did get quite heated and one naughty word she used produced a collective intake of breath from those listening in. I’ll admit it has been rather strange for me being at home without Ed and having no updates, but I’m sure he’s having a great time. Last week he was rather poorly so I’m really pleased he was well enough to be able to go and thankful that I haven’t had a phone call from the staff asking me to collect him.

The Internet is wonderful and has become such a big part of our lives, but I'm pleased I can say it is (just) possible to live without it every day. How many days can you go without the Internet?