La Poste have an English version of their impressive website which is most user friendly and informative.  I think it must be one of the best postal information sites around!  You can find out everything about the French postal system from sending parcels and posting letters to setting up email address with la poste.  Their add on gizmos include a currency converter, world time clock, a widget to put on your desk top to alert you to the arrival of email into la Poste and also Gmail, aol etc. plus time differences between countries. You can even send e cards and post cards from the site online. 

CYBER POST OFFICES, TRAFFIC ALERTS AND GLOSSARY - There is a Traffic Alert page which details public holidays or postal difficulties in other countries in the world which might slow down or jeopardise your mail or parcel delivery.   It is very easy to find post codes on the site as well as the location of post offices both actual and cyber!  The comprehensive French to English or English to French postal glossary is extremely useful and by the time the letter "D" is reached you will have discovered 39 words of postal vocabulary and it carries on from there!

ONLINE POSTAGE - One useful page allows you to prepare all the paperwork for parcel sending and make payment online prior to printing out the postal documents which means you can take the package to your nearest post office and hand it in without having to queue.  Stamps can also be bought online.

La Poste also are a respected bank offering full banking services.

Enjoy the site - the English is perfect and it is exceptionally easy to navigate. Click here to find out more

France Telecom - Orange  A bit more complicated site than La Poste but the English version is very helpful and provides some new telephone solutions such as Unique which allows you to use your mobile as you would any  mobile when away from home but on your return switches to your broadband network so that you can enjoy home rates and low cost calls over the internet.  The say that Unique in the UK is Unik in France and Unico in Spain.

ONLINE VIDEOS

Orange are partners with studios including Gaumont, MGM,  Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox so that Orange customers with a broadband digital television package or a broadband Internet package to view films on from the MGM catalogue. 24/24 Video allows you to watch the films on your TV or PC with a catalogue of 3,000 films and 6,000 TV programmes.  Prices start at 1 euro a film for 24hrs rental with unlimited viewing, pause, fast forward and rewind functions, either in French or in the original language with subtitles.

The site has links to sites for all countries in the world where Orange is available in that countries language.  The site tells you a lot about Orange! Click here to find out more

NEW LiFE iN 

FRANCE

We find the site highly informative and particularly liked the page about "What Not to Do in France"!  A myriad of topics are covered from contemplation about relocation, to house buying, removal and settling down.  The pages are concise and easily read. 

To quote from the website :

"New Life In France was formed to offer a unique reference point on moving to and living in F- france.  Planning what to take, where to live, telling the family, settling in, finding a job, speaking the language - moving to France will be easy once you've read this site.  Our concern was that there was no single UK resource for interesting features and practical advice on this subject. Our features and articles are written by professional journalists and experts - who have a particular interest, or a background in this area.  New Life In France was founded by John Rowlinson, the founder of PtS.  John, through PtS, is involved in a number of ventures including software and property companies. A small percentage of revenue from these activities goes towards funding New Life In France and a number of similar sites.  There is no drive to generate profit and the focus is simply on creating the highest quality information possible that is widely read."

http://www.newlifeinfrance.co.uk/