-
Gîtes de France at 70: ‘We are not competing with the web platforms’
The holiday body that was founded to help farmers boost their income celebrates its 70th anniversary
-
French city ranked 'best in world' for internet connection
France has prioritised investment in high-speed fixed broadband in recent years
-
Brittany Ferries to increase frequency of popular France-Ireland route
Increase in service comes as Stena Line stop serving the route
Continent-wide outage hits Skype
Popular video chat and messaging app 'down for hours' claim users

If you use Skype – and have been having problems today – you are not alone.
What appears to be a serious continent-wide outage has hit the popular video chat app today, leaving users unable to send or receive messages.
The problems began overnight, when software giant Microsoft - which owns the Skype brand - said on its official Skype blog it was, 'aware of an incident where users will either lose connectivity to the application and may be unable to send or receive messages'.
An update at 7am GMT (9am France time) added: "We're aware users are still experiencing problems - we're looking into this!"
Skype has so far released no more information. Users have taken their frustration to Microsoft’s forums, describing the issue and asking for help. Some claim that the app has been down for hours. This map from independent internet outage monitor DownDetector reveals where outage reports were greatest at about 1.30pm on Tuesday, June 20.
While the outage appears to be affecting only Europe directly, its consequences are being felt globally. Millions of people rely on the app to connect with friends, family and business partners.
Stay informed:
Sign up to our free weekly e-newsletter
Subscribe to access all our online articles and receive our printed monthly newspaper The Connexion at your home. News analysis, features and practical help for English-speakers in France