How much is 36 hours without internet worth?

Flying on a high over the past few days mainly thanks to high temperatures and sunny weather lulling me into thinking spring has finally hit the city, I was brought back to earth not only by a 15 ° C drop in temperature but also by a sudden breakdown of the internet system.

Finally having reached the local provider Orange I was informed that there was "une panne générale". What does a "panne générale" entail I politely asked fearing for the worst. Turns out part of our neighbourhood would be without a connection until 7pm the following day.

You have got to be kidding me... 36 hours without internet, landline or TV, all of which are connected to this little black box that is not receiving the signal from outer space?

If I didn't know better I wouldn't believe I am sitting in the posh area of Paris and the year on the calendar is 2017. This kind of breakdown might happen in other continents... not at my door step. On second thought, might it be the Russians and the Renault incident?!? I am starting to wonder...

The following day once the signal was back on track, the Orange operator DID phone to offer a 15 Euro discount on my next bill. Again, I needed to lay out that 36 hours is a long time in business units whereupon he offered me a further 5 Euros. In my head I am thinking how many hours would I need to spend haggling with Monsieur and how much would I managed to negotiate out of him... such very unprofessional behaviour for a highly renowned French multinational telecommunications corporation.

On the other hand I am now so used to living in this country I just felt grateful I actually received a phone call from Orange to check if the internet was working again. Let's just leave it at that shall we?