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All churches in France will ring their bells for seven minutes straight next Friday
Pope Leo XIV is visiting the country from September 25
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British diver missing in cave in south-west France
43-year-old failed to return from a dive at the Gouffre de Saint-Sauveur on Friday
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Hospital in Nouvelle-Aquitaine to make some parking spaces paid: how common is this in France?
The hospital said the measure will prevent long-term parking by non-hospital users
Fibre optic broadband in rural areas
A new telecoms operator, Vitis, is set to specialise in offering fibre optic cabling to rural areas which may not have access to high-speed internet. It plans to sell a triple play fibre contract covering internet, mobile and television.
Rural areas often do not have fibre optic networks, or are only covered by small alternative operators and the ‘Big 4’ French telecoms firms (Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free) tend to concentrate on cities as they are more profitable.
However, more than 50% of French departments are now covered by public initiative networks (RIPs) co-financed by operators who install fibre optic cabling to give high-speed broadband access. Vitis wants to penetrate 20% of these networks within two years.
To check availability in your area, visit www.vitis.tv