For all of you who love the 5th or 6th as much as I do, you will be happy to know there is a new (at least it wasn't here last September) place called Access Academy on St. Andre de Arts, just east of Buci. It has 400 high speed stations, many of them even have English keyboards (they say "Qwerty" in the upper right hand corner of the station). You can get a full 24 hour's use for 6.80 euro or a full week for 14.80! This is one of the best internet places I've ever been to in Europe, and it is open from something like 8 in the morning until 2 in the morning.

Thanks, Patrick. Good info. Boots

Omigod, I would have killed for an English keyboard in Paris. I'm saving this info for my next trip. Thanks!

I just got back from Paris, and wanted to top this message and say thanks to Patrick for the heads up. We used this place daily, it's very easy to use with very friendly and helpful staff. And yes, Marilyn, they have lots of qwerty (U.S.) keyboards.

Thanks for the great tip, Patrick. We'll be there in 2 weeks and that will be perfect for checking in with family, etc.

DH and I visited internet cafes frequently in the 5th. When confronted with a non-English keyboard, there were a series of keystrokes that turned it into our standard QWERTY keyboard.

Ask the "slacker" at the desk; they are frequently more helpful than they look!

D'oh . . . !

The thought that the keyboards in France & Italy might be different from here, didn't really occur to me. (I know, I know . . . what a dolt, right?!).

Just how different are they? I mean, will I be able to get the gist of my thoughts across?

Jennie

DH and I both type without looking, and the keys are just slightly different in location.

It can lead to some interesting emails if you are typing under the gun of your euro's worth of time.

I can't specifically recall the differences but they were time consuming.

Lots of letters (important ones) are switched. M, Q, can't remember what else. French uses the Q lots more than English -- it's like our WH (quoi, quand, qui, etc). If you are a touch typist it will drive you nuts!

Great idea about switching the keyboard, Koshka, but more often than not we were using a hotel computer rather than an internet cafe.

It's those German ones that switch the z and y that really drive me nuts.

Patrick, this is my second thanks to you. Returned from Paris last night. The Access Academy is just a few blocks from my hotel, and I used it daily, sometimes twice a day. The 14.80?€ for a week was a reasonable price, I thought. It was really nice to get news from family and colleagues. Boots

French keyboards' top letter row starts with AZERTY... They have to do everything differently, don't they?

Also, you need to hit shift to get numbers on the main keyboard, so use the numeric keypad.

Patrick, I have the exact opposite problem - I'm used to a swiss/german QWERTZ keyboard.

I misspell constantlz in the US.

Andre

Try a Hungarian one

Bless you Patrick! This place is just steps away from our favorite haunts! Will give it a try in Dec. Yeah!

To the top for the current discussion.

There are no problems about having plenty of internet cafes in Paris..you can pull up a list and find the ones nearest your hotel, along with their hours. As far as adjusting their keyboards for your use..it is very simple..they will tell you a couple keys to change..I have used them on many a trip to Paris, with no problems whatsoever

Does anyone know if these cafes offer "Hot Spot" access . . wireless 802.11b? Got a new PDA that may replace my notebook when travelling and it has wireless capability.

Thanks . . Rich

Patrick....

Could you tell me the exact location of this internet cafe relative to the underground etc. and the current rates

Thank you

http://www.accessacademy.com/

Looks great! Thanks, Patrick!

Thanks a bunch, Patrick--my husband now has a big smile on his face about using his laptop in Paris next month.

FYI, re the French keyboard: I found the single most annoying thing to be having to shift to use the period.