What seemed like a simple idea is getting complicated…

We want to rent a villa for two weeks in September in SW France (Hossegor). However we are likely to need to do a bit of work as we run our PR company – so we need broadband.

Apparently buying a dongle and sim here will rack up crazy bills so we need to buy one in France. Is this the only real option? The villa has no wifi and internet cafes aren't appropriate.

In this age of technology, why is using broadband overseas still so expensive – apparently on a UK sim, it's about £1 per MB!!!

Any other ideas? I have a feeling buying a PAYG sim in France might not be all that easy!

To put it in context, I relied on my phone 3g connection to do some work whilst grounded in Sweden with the volcanic ash – next month I got the £400 bill! Get a local sim or find somewhere with a free wifi.

Rent a villa that has broadband installed, the last cottage we took did.