The story of
Minitel,
France's idiosyncratic national online service, hailed as a world leader in
the 1980s, now seen as embarrassingly dated by some, yet still a source of
national pride to many French users.
Just as anti-globalisation campaigner José Bové tapped into a rich French vein
of resentment for many things Anglo-Saxon and for lousy American food in
particular when he vandalised a McDonald's restaurant last year, so Minitel
need not politely defer to the internet. Just yet. Dominique Lamiche of
France Télécom says: "We'll always have people who prefer to
buy a train ticket on the Minitel because it's fast and one knows how to
manage it. You don't need the internet's animated pictures to buy a simple
train ticket."