Post Offices
Post offices are marked “La Poste” and most are open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. (In small towns, weekday hours may be 9:00 a.m. to noon and 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.). Mailboxes are yellow. Major post offices can cash or send international postal checks and money orders and have fax, telex and telephone facilities. In Paris, the main post office, at 52, rue du Louvre, is open 24 hours. Stamps can also be purchased at café-tabacs, hotels and some newsstands. Mailing a normal letter of less than 20g costs 0.55€ to destinations within France, 0.65€ to elsewhere in the EU, and 0.85€ to all other countries. www.laposte.com
Using Telephones
All French telephone numbers have 10 digits, starting with a 0. To call within the country, just dial the 10 digits. To call France from the United States or Canada, omit the initial 0 of the French number. For example, dial 011 (the international access code), then 33 (the country code for France), and then the telephone number minus the initial 0 (nine digits instead of 10). Note: Follow the same process to send a fax.
Most public telephones accept only phone cards, called télécartes or cartes téléphoniques, which are sold at post offices or café-tabacs for 7.50€ (for 50 unités) or 15€ (for 120 unités). Note that numbers beginning with 08 have per-minute rates slightly higher than standard domestic numbers. 0800 numbers, though, are toll free.
To call the United States and Canada from France, dial 00 then 1 plus the area code and phone number. When using long-distance phone companies, you must use their toll-free access number:
AT&T Direct - 08 00 99 00 11
Sprint - 08 00 99 00 87
MCI - 08 00 99 00 19
Canada Direct - 08 00 99 00 16 or 08 00 99 02 16
Online telephone book
www.pagesjaunes.fr for the yellow pages
www.pagesblanches.fr for the white pages
Collect Calls
To make a collect call (en PCV) within France, dial 3006 from any phone in France (private or public), record your name, then dial the number. For collect calls to the U.S. or Canada, use the toll-free access numbers above and follow the prompts.
Mobile Phones
France and the rest of Europe use GSM 900/1800, which is incompatible with the North American GSM 1900. Check with the manufacturer and your service provider to see if you can use your mobile phone in Europe. If your phone can be used, think about purchasing a local prepaid phone kit, complete with SIM-card charged with a specified amount of credit, from one of the three major mobile providers. Credit can be recharged. In France, you pay nothing to receive domestic calls on your mobile phone; however, it is therefore much more expensive to call a mobile phone than a landline. Mobile phone numbers always begin with 06. There are three major cellular phone providers in France:
Bouygues - tel. 08 10 63 01 00, www.bouygtel.com
Orange - tel. 08 00 83 08 00, www.orange.fr
SFR - tel. 08 00 10 60 00, www.sfr.com
Internet Access
Privately operated Internet cafés can be found just about everywhere, with rates between 3€ and 5€ per hour. Many French post offices also have a card-operated Cyberposte (see www.cyberposte.com, in French), and Netanoo's Borne Internet (www.netanoo.com, in French) is a joint operation of France Telecom and Orange that you can pay for using a normal télécarte. Dial-up access from your own computer is possible through local access numbers of service providers like AOL and Earthlink, but also through short-term membership to local providers like Free (www.free.com) and Wanadoo (www.wanadoo.fr, in French). Wireless access is on the rise, and is available in many hotels, cafés, and even some McDonald’s restaurants.