Basic Phone and Internet Question

[Filly]

Can anyone help ? This feels like a back to basics question but I can't seem to find an answer.

I have a 2nd home that I visit about 16 weeks a year and so the phone and internet have a lot of dormant time at that home. I need to access the internet when I am in France as I work as a consultant and need to keep up with emails. But my inter net useage beyond emails is very very low. I need a phone line to recieve calls from elderly family in the UK and to be able to call them as cheaply as possible. But again, my phone use is low but as with the inter net necessary.

I slept walked into a terrible deal with France Telecom and Orange that sees me paying 32euros to France Telecom and 40+ to Orange for the inter net and an internet phone. I don't seem to be able to [1] get through to or [2] get any sense from France Telecom on the matter of a basic basic package.

I saw mention of an orange 'dongle' in the Living France mag but know nothing about them.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Cheers

 

 

[Clair]

This might help: http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1584172/ShowPost.aspx