When me and Him indoors first arrived in France some 5 years ago, it was a triple whammy to our senses. New country, new language and being together 24/7 for the first time in over 40 years. If you're not to come to blows, you have to recognise what each is good at and learn to complement one another as best you can when difficulties arise. I have absolutely no practical skills whatsoever, so Him indoors is detailed to change those fiddly electric sockets, light switches etc. plus changing the water filter (to combat calcium deposits) and dragging home half-trees in the dead of night to keep us stocked up for the winter, whilst I do all the worrying(!), housework, bill paying and swearing at the PC.
This is a wonderful system until something goes wrong, like last week. Storms wrought havoc causing power cuts, which led to losing our English TV channels and internet - again! Couldn't check bank balance or anything. Eventually I was able to use the phone and call in France Telecom, who suggested a new 'para foudre' wire in the garage. Then came the casual mention that we'd have to get a new livebox - a short 50 mile drive to Montauban and all that entails. Him indoors asked the engineer: how many times is this going to happen? 'Je ne suis pas le bon Dieu!' came the gallic response.
Life is never boring here.
Showing posts with label France Telecom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France Telecom. Show all posts
18th July 2010
Everything's fine living here as long as all's going well. But when things go wrong? Double the trouble. It's not just having to use a foreign language; attitudes in France are very different from those back home in Birmingham. There, the general air of pessimism was renowned. In shops everywhere could be heard the refrain: 'I don't suppose you've got one of these', the customer wondering why he'd even bothered to ask, so unlikely was the trader's answer gonna be. So France was bound to be the same, wasn't it?
Living in the middle of nowhere, one of the worst things for me is when the internet goes down. I have one of these 'blinking' liveboxes, but it's not supposed to blink. Disaster. Ringing France Telecom is a nightmare: the usual musical tones, then the Queen asking you to press 1 for this, 2 for that etc. And then, when you finally get a real person - impossible to explain the technical jargon for what's gone wrong, even more the answer. But, my fairy godmother was at hand! I found an English-speaking service that actually had technicians at hand to help. Not only did they come chez-nous, they fixed the problem (a chewed wire underground + changed our old rusty phone socket) for free! Now that's something you don't see everyday. The tel. no. is charged at local rates: 09.69.36.39.00.
See. I told you everything'd be all right!
Living in the middle of nowhere, one of the worst things for me is when the internet goes down. I have one of these 'blinking' liveboxes, but it's not supposed to blink. Disaster. Ringing France Telecom is a nightmare: the usual musical tones, then the Queen asking you to press 1 for this, 2 for that etc. And then, when you finally get a real person - impossible to explain the technical jargon for what's gone wrong, even more the answer. But, my fairy godmother was at hand! I found an English-speaking service that actually had technicians at hand to help. Not only did they come chez-nous, they fixed the problem (a chewed wire underground + changed our old rusty phone socket) for free! Now that's something you don't see everyday. The tel. no. is charged at local rates: 09.69.36.39.00.
See. I told you everything'd be all right!
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