<blog> Bloody French

It seems to be nigh on impossible to find an open wireless access point.
Only found one all week with everything else locked up tight.

It also looks like I'll have a couple of opportunities to assess the
development of cross-border co-operation in the sharing of vehicle
ownership details.

 

Don't they have <spit> Strbucks where you were then?

Personally I think your expectation was perhaps just a tad optimistic,
but you might have found things different just by getting a cheap,
PAYG SIM for one of the French networks. IIRC there are loads of e.g.
Orange hotspots in cities where all you need to do is enter your
Orange (.fr) phone number & details.

Heh. Roadside radar? Let us know if they follow-up. I last tested
Fr-CH some months back, so it'll be interesting to see if they've yet
got it working with your mob.

 

IIRC you have a satnav - download a suitable POI file. We use

http://poi.gps-data-team.com/_wifi_hotspots/

Whoops!

 

Isn't he more genetically disposed to use McDonalds?

 

<G> Interested to see that.

 

I misremembered my last French Flash, which was only about a month
ago. I don't expect to hear anything about it though. then again, I
was only doing about 62kph in a 50 limit, so I don't imagine they'd
see it as a prority item. I do wonder what sort of offence you'd have
to commit before they started taking special measures to deal with it.

 

You must be in a different France from the one I visited last summer, just
go and buy a coffee in McDonalds.

Note, you don't have to actually drink the coffee

 

We did find one, but no wifi so that saved the embarrassment of going in
and demonstrating that I wasn't French.

 

In the UK and Belgium, it's always possible to find something. Maybe the
French are more paranoid.

Noted, ta.

One was my own fault, dropped off the autoroute, passed a 50 sign while
still slowing and got flashed.

The second was a bit iffy as I was accelerating into a gap to join the
Caen peripherique and there was a shonky old Citroen camera car on the
hard shoulder. Flash number two.

 

Do you have to buy anything? Can't you McSurf from just outside?

 

No, you should need a code which is time limited, although some will
undoubtedly have their encryption mysteriously turned off

http://www.mcdonalds.fr/graphics/restaurants-guide/find-restaurant/michelin03.html
gives the locations - look for locationa with an M that looks a bit
like the @ character, like this
http://bs.viamichelin.com/b2b2c/client_data/MCDONALDS/95122/fra/images/19_1.gif