Internet access is not an essential part of our travels, but it can be useful for sharing stories and pictures, locating bike mechanics, organising future activities and accomodation, researching solutions to various problems and finding a shop that opens on a Sunday!
Using the internet on our phones
is ridiculously expensive, but free wifi is pretty easy to come by.
At the start of our venture we relied soley on the wifi gratuit at the campsites we stayed at. Whilst most of the campsites offered some form of wifi, only about half were free. The fee for wifi varied alot, from €1 for the entire stay to €5 for 1hr. We have only bought Wifi twice. Most of the time we have relied on free wifi from campsites, libraries, Office du Tourisme and some shops and cafes.
Libraries seem to come in 2 flavours: bibliotheque and mediatheque.
Bibliotheques seem to be oldschool libraries with books and stuff, that usually have a couple of computers to use, whilst mediatheques have more computers and wifi and music and media things (and books).
Expect a 1hr usage limit and you might have to sign up for a library card.
Office du Tourisme are serious places in France. Vast quantities of regional maps for cycling, walking, camping, horseriding and whatever other activity you can think of line the walls, and theres even more out the back! They sell their region hard and are clearly proud of what they have to offer. As well as being an invaluable source of information (and free maps) they usually have 1hr free wifi available with the snazzier ones having computers and ipads for you to use. All for free!
Another source of free wifi are shops and cafes. If you keep an eye out, alot of city cafes offer free wifi. The bigger shopping centers and supermarkets usually have a wifi zone of some sort and big chains like McDonalds also offer free wifi.
There really is no need to pay for internet whilst traveling in France. Because they go to so much effort to provide the service it's almost rude not to use it!
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