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Free Internet Access in Paris?
I'm travelling with my 3 teenaged daughters to Paris for 5 days in August. My daughter doesn't want to bring her laptop so I'm wondering in there is any free internet access in Paris? If so, where? If not, are there "internet cafes" or any other public spots where you could pay for some internet access? We're stayin near the Place d'Italia metro station while in Paris. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Cheers! |
Google for hot spots anywhere in the world, including Paris. Also google for internet cafés in Paris. They are fairly prevalent.
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There are some free places, but I wouldn't count on it at all. They are always busy/broken (they used to have some in some RER stations). There were some in the Denfert Rochereau RER B station, not far from Place d'Italie, as well as in the Port Royal and Luxembourg stations, one at Place d'Italie. This is RATP's current list of where they are (a borne is an internet post/station):
<<Les bornes dans le RER • 3 bornes à Châtelet - Les Halles • 2 bornes à Chessy - Marne la Vallée • 2 bornes à La Défense • 2 bornes à Gare de Lyon • 2 bornes à Noisy-Champs • 2 bornes à St Maur Créteil • 2 bornes à Charles de Gaulle Étoile • 1 borne à Auber • 3 bornes à Denfert Rochereau • 3 bornes à Luxembourg • 3 bornes à Port Royal • 2 bornes à Bourg la Reine • 2 bornes à Cité Universitaire • 2 bornes à Antony • 1 borne à Orsay • 1 borne à Fontenay-aux-Roses • 1 borne à Palaiseau Les bornes dans le métro • 2 bornes à Gare de Lyon • 1 borne à Porte Maillot • 2 bornes à Gare du Nord • 1 borne à Bastille • 1 borne à Place d'Italie • 1 borne à Nation • 1 borne à Chaussée d'Antin • 1 borne à Jussieu • 2 bornes à Saint-Lazare>> I think you can use them for seven minutes free if you have a Navigo pass. |
I don't know if all libraries have internet posts, but the Bibliothèque François Mitterrand definitely does.
But if your daughter doesn't want to bring her laptop, will she accept that you bring it and carry it? Paris has free municipal wifi in the parks and other public places. And McDonald's has free unlimited wifi at all locations. My own office recently clamped down on the internet, so I just take my netbook in front of the Haagen Dazs café on the Champs Elysées and sit on a bench to use it. |
There are free computers/wifi at many French Post Offices also.
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The library of Centre Pompidou. Get in line before it opens-- there can be a long line. Not too crowded when we went at night.
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Does anyone in the family have an Ipod Touch? Great for checking messages and sending brief ones and much easier than hauling a laptop.
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I don't know firsthand, but a friend says when they travel, her husband is a regular at the American Embassy whereever they are as he cannot go without his sports scores.
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There are many internet shops / cyber cafes in Paris as well. Here is a list, some may be closed but it should be a fairly good list still. ( I think I last checked them against PagesJaunes in 2007)
PARIS INTERNET CAFES ------------------------------------ Côté Cyber Jardin 5 rue La Sourdière 75001 (in the Hotel le Lion d'Or) M: Tuileries MILK 31 blvd Sebastopol 75001 http://www.milkinternethall.com/ M: Chatelet les Halles Cybersquare 1 pl République 75003 (entre Passage Vendome) http://www.cybersquare-paris.com/ M: Republique Web 46 cyber café 46 rue du Roi de Sicile 75004 M: St Paul MILK 53 rue de la Harpe 75005 http://www.milkinternethall.com/ M: Cluny - la Sorbonne MILK 17 rue Soufflot 75005 http://www.milkinternethall.com/ M: RER-Luxembourg Luxembourg Micro 81 blvd St Michel 75005 http://www.luxembourg-micro.com/ MR-Luxembourg) Actuel Bureautique 14 rue Santeuil 75005 http://www.facanet.com/ M: Censieur-Daubenton Cyber Cube - Odéon 5, rue Mignon 75006 http://www.cybercube.fr/us/index.htm M: Odéon Cyber Com's 212 rue St Maur 75010 M: Goncourt Cyber Cube - Bastille 12 rue Daval 75011 http://www.cybercube.fr/us/index.htm M: Bastille Le Meilleur des Mondes 4Bis rue Michel Chasles 75012 M: Gare de Lyon Sputnik Café - - still have internet stations? 14-16 rue de la Butte aux Cailles 75013 www.sputnikcafe.com/ M: Corvisart MILK 5 rue d'Odessa 75014 http://www.milkinternethall.com/ M: Montparnasse;Edgar Quinet Cyber Cube - Montparnasse 9, rue d'Odessa 75014 http://www.cybercube.fr/us/index.htm M: Montparnasse-Bienvenue, Edgar Quinet |
A lot of the centrally located cybercafés have closed due to the increase in free wifi and people with laptops and netbooks. However in the outer areas of Paris, there are a lot of 'taxiphone' boutiques used mostly by Africans and Asians, which also have internet service. Prices vary between 1€ and 1.50€ per hour.
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We used cybercafe's all over Paris. They seem to be one on every other block. Kerouac is correct in prices. I just would not send sensitive banking info. there. Just email checking, etc. I used one on Rue Rodier, about two blocks down from the park on the left.
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On my next to last trip to Paris, I had duly printed out a list of cybercafes. However, once there I found several had closed (maybe these small business open and close easily.)
And I never did find one that was open for for business and that was not crowded with groups of rather boisterous young men, and the bottom line is, I just never used one. I now travel with a netbook and find it so convenient. |
I brought my little netbook with wifi to Paris last time and carried it in my day bag. When I needed a coffee or a beer I would start looking for the free wifi sign on the window of cafes. They are not everywhere but they are there, and free.
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Lately, due to office restrictions, I have been sitting on benches on the Champs Elysées with my netbook at lunch time to see which networks I can pick up on each bench.
I should be able to publish a guide soon. :) |
I think lots of us at Fodors would find it delightful to sit on a bench on the Champs Elysees at lunch time doing research with Kerouac.
Being in Paris AND making ourselves useful. |
:)
Actually, I am working on a new Champs Elysées project that should have everybody dumbfounded.... shhhhh. It won't be ready until next week at the earliest. |
Dell had the little netbooks on sale for $250 this summer. Mine is great for travel- you can tuck it into a purse or shopping bag and hardly know it's there. Plus it doesn't have all my valuable stuff (photos, files, etc) on it so I don't worry as much about something happening to it. If you're paying thousands of dollars for airplane tickets and hotel rooms, another $250 really isn't much for the convenience and peace of mind.
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