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Subscribing to all required utilities Prior to your moving in, all gas, electricity, water and telephone will have been turned off and you will need to contact the appropriate bodies to have these services reinstated. As far as bills are concerned, you can either pay by cheque or arrange with your bank for direct debits or standing orders. Water supply If you live in an apartment building, you may never have to deal with a water company and you will be charged for a fraction of all the water consumed in the building. However if a meter has been installed or if you live in a house, you will receive a half-yearly bill for the amount of water used. Electricity and gas supply EDF (Electricité de France) and GDF (Gaz de France) are State-owned monopolies which operate as a single unit, called EGF. You will need to contact a local office to arrange your contract and to choose the type of service you require. You can also ask the advice of an EGF agent (Service Clientèle). Homes in France are wired for 220 volts/50 Hz current. You may need to use adapters or transformers for certain equipment. EGF subscribers are usually billed every two months. The french telephone system Telecommunications are mostly handled by the State-owned France Telecom company. All operations concerning your telephone (obtaining a phone line, laying the cables, billing options and payment, special services, etc) can be carried out through the local France Telecom bureau (Agence Commerciale des Télécommunications), or by dialling 14. Teleboutiques of France Telecom are primarily devoted to renting or selling more sophisticated telephones, answering and fax machines. Telephone subscribers are billed every two months. Since January 1, 98, the telephone market has been deregulated and there are two new national operators, CEGETEL (le sept) and Bouygues (le neuf) which are more competitive on long-distance calls. France Telecom will keep its monopoly as far as local calls are concerned, while other companies operate for national and international calls. You can sign a contract with one of these private companies in department stores such as FNAC, Darty, Auchan, etc. or in shops specialized in telecom material.
Three main companies are on the market : - ORANGE
(France Telecom) You can buy them in any large department store (FNAC, Auchan, Darty, etc.) or in shops specialized in telecom material.
The Minitel is a small, on-line computer with multi-services that can be connected to any French telephone line and can be accessed internationally via modem hook-up. It can be obtained from your local France Telecom office. The basic telephone directory service which has virtually replaced the telephone book in France is available free of charge. Although the basic service, the information directory, obtained by simply dialling 11, is free for the first three minutes, other services such as banking, shopping, making plane, train, theatre or concert reservations, are charged by the minute directly to your bi-monthly telephone bill. As you may be slightly puzzled the first time you use a Minitel, hereafter are the instructions on how to operate it : Turn on the unit, dial the code number on your telephone, wait for the fax-like tone, type in the rest of the code on the Minitel, and then press Connexion fin on the Minitel keyboard. Now, you are on-line. The rest should be self-evident. To break the connection and stop the billing clock, but not erase the information on the screen, touch Connexion fin. The price of each service per minute is displayed on your monitor as you sign-on. Here is a sampling of some services and their access codes : - 3615 AF : Air France information
In France there are plenty of Internet Service Providers (ISP). The major one is WANADOO, owned by France Telecom. There are also international ISP such as COMPUSERVE and America On Line (AOL). ISDN connections are easily available through France Telecom. However you must bear in mind that telephone costs can be very high, and when choosing an ISP you should check the availability of a node within your local telephone billing area. - Compuserve : Call 08 03 00 80 00 In France, if your home is not cabled you can receive only 5 national channels: TF1, France 2, France 3, Arte/La Cinq, M6. In addition, and if you pay a special subscription of about 175 FF per month, you can obtain Canal +. You will usually have to go to a TV dealer near you to fill out the paperwork and pick up your decoder box. Cable TV offers several foreign channels such as BBC, CNN, ZDF, RAI Uno,TVE and many other channels. If your home is cabled, contact your townhall (mairie) for information on how to subscribe to the private company which runs the cable in your area. It should cost you 170 FF a month and upwards, depending on the number of channels requested, plus one time frais de dossier (registration fees) of 1.200 FF. Newcomers may benefit from special offers. In some buildings a satellite dish (antenne parabolique) has been installed, which means you can receive a large choice of channels, depending on the operator you subscribe to. If you move into a building with no satellite dish, you must be aware that the procedure to have one installed is time consuming as it means obtaining authorizations from the owner, the co-owners and the Townhall. Here is a brief description of the Networks : - TF1, private, multi-purpose TV channel with the largest audience overall (games, talk shows, sitcoms, soap operas (feuilletons), cinema and made-for-TV movies, documentary movies, news). - France 2, State-owned, same types of programming as TF1, also programs many special events, interviews and cultural happenings. - France 3, State-owned, shares much of its programming with France 2 and adds a lot of regional transmissions, news, documentaries and environmental programs. - Arte, State-owned, a Franco-German joint TV channel whose emphasis is on culture and movies in original language (version originale). - M6, private, a growing channel, with lots of music, lots of reruns of old American programmes, and, in general, entertainment for adults. Pay TV : - Canal Plus, private and Pay-TV, shows a lot of recent movies and provides an outstanding sports coverage.
- NOOS : private Cable TV, available in Paris and several major towns
- TPS : main private satellite operater. - CanalSatellite : satellite offer from Canal Plus. - ABsat The TV/Video French system works with the SECAM standard while the North American standard is the NTSC and the European standard is usally the PAL. Please note that a multistandard TV bought outside France will usually allow you to watch French videotapes but not to receive French broadcasts. We strongly suggest not to bring your TV nor VCR in France. Most TV and VCR sold in France are dual standard SECAM / PAL (record and playback). However if you wish to be able to watch your NTSC videos in France, you should buy here a multistandard TV/VCR which will playback NTSC tapes (but not record them). French law requires a special annual users tax ("redevance") for TV and video owners. Electronics stores are obliged to report all sales to the government. You will probably find yourself with around 700 FF to pay for an annual TV licence.
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