Page 265 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Brittany

PR A C TIC AL INFORM A TION  263

Many hotels and chambres- (tabac). Letters are posted
d’hôtes now offer Wi-Fi. However, in yellow mail boxes, which
some places still charge, so be often have separate slots for
sure to ask. Many hotels use a the town you are in, within Canal Plus logo
subscription service (Orange the département and all other
France and Meteor are among destinations (autres destinations). Sky and BBC World. In addition,
the most common), with which Post offices usually open from in northeast Brittany it is very
you buy a certain amount of 9am until 5pm Monday to Friday, easy to get good reception
time credit (usually from 1 hour) often with a break for lunch, of all the main UK TV channels
and are then given an access and from 9am until noon on from the Channel Islands. Of
code. Time remaining can be Saturdays. However, the opening the French channels, Canal Plus
used at other hotels offering the times of small-town post offices (or Canal +) is a popular channel
same service. In addition, there can vary considerably. that is fully available only to
are Wi-Fi hotspots in hotels, subscribers, though a few
airports, tourist offices, train programmes are shown
stations and sometimes city Newspapers, Magazines uncoded (during coded
and Websites
squares. Note that French Wi-Fi programmes, if you do not
servers often use different The main national French dailies have a subscription, picture
frequencies to those common are, from right to left on the and sound are distorted). Canal
in the UK and North America, political spectrum: Le Figaro, Plus frequently shows classic
so you may have to reconfigure France Soir, Le Monde and and modern films in English,
your device to get a signal. Libération. Brittany also has with French subtitles.
Wi-Fi also opens up more several good local publications; It is easy to pick up UK radio
affordable uses, such as Skype among them, the daily Ouest stations in Brittany, particularly,
and WhatsApp, for your phone. France has the largest circulation, as with TV, in the northeast of
Buying a pass for access to Wi-Fi and comprehensive coverage the region. BBC Radio 4 can be
hot spots is another option; for of local affairs. The quarterly heard during the day (648 AM
example, Boingo offers monthly Bretagne Magazine also has or 198 Long Wave) and BBC
unlimited mobile access. attractive features on cultural World Service broadcasts
and other events in Brittany. on the same wavelength
The major British newspapers through the night. Voice of
are frequently available on the America can be found at 90.5,
day of publication in Brittany’s 98.8 and 102.4 FM.
resorts and main cities. The
most widely available are The DIRECTORY
Daily Telegraph and The Times,
but in larger towns you will Useful Numbers
have a broader choice, and you
may also find US titles such as Directory enquiries
USA Today and the International Tel 118 218.
Herald Tribune. International directory
To find out what’s on in enquiries
terms of music, films, festivals, Tel 118 218.
sport and every other area of
culture, some of the best places Mobile Phones
to look – apart from local tourist
A distinctive bright-yellow French offices, which provide a useful Bouygues
mail box range of information – are Tel 3106 (free from a
French landline).
listings websites, such as
Postal Services ∑ bouyguestelecom.fr
Cityvox (www.cityvox.fr) and
The postal service in France is Les Inrocks (www.lesinrocks. Orange
fast and reliable. However, it com). Although these cover the Tel 09 69 36 39 00 (free from
is not cheap, especially when whole of France, they also have a French landline).
it comes to sending parcels specific pages on different cities ∑ orange.fr
abroad. There are post offices around the country. Cityvox has SFR
in most towns, and large main some content in English. Tel 1023 (free from a
offices in all cities. Stamps French landline).
(timbres) are sold at post offices Television and Radio ∑ sfr.fr
singly or in books (carnets) of
ten, but you will normally have Many hotels offer foreign Internet
to queue to get them, so the digital and satellite channels
quickest and most convenient (collectively known as TPS, Boingo
place to buy ordinary stamps or télévision par satellite), ∑ boingo.com
is usually a tobacconist’s shop such as, in English, CNN,

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