Rickjones

In the process of buying a place near Bergerac, which for at least a couple of years will only be a holiday home (around 3 to 4 visits a year). I'd like to have a phone service - there is a line installed - but obviously I'd prefer not to pay a hefty monthly fee given the amount of time it won't be in use. I don't know my way around the French phone system(s) yet - are there any services with economical low-usage tariffs? TIA Rick Jones

The SIM-card deal from http://www.lefrenchmobile.com looks pretty good value - does anyone have any experience of them? I'll only be going to France intermittently for the next 2 or 3 years, and while I don't want to rack up roaming charges, I don't really want a "use it or loose it" prepaid SIM either as I suspect I'd end up throwing away credit. Lefrenchmobile's deal seems good, costing only 5/mth when you're not using the phone (i.e. not in France), with lower call charges than prepaid. It also includes GPRS which is handy for me - though all French GPRS rates appear to be astronomic (15/Mb)! I suspect the catch is that they run on the Bouygues network which looks to have the worst coverage. We'll be near Bergerac, I've looked at the coverage maps which seem reasonable, but maps are only half the story. What's the experience with Bouygues in this area? Any experiences or suggestions welcome! Rick Jones