- In France's last telephone booth, it rings constantly.
"Hello, bonjour!" ("Hallo, guten Tag") - that's how Marie-Line Le Gourrierec greets you in the phone booth of the small Alsatian village of Murbach. Before that, the unassuming cabin at the edge of the village parking lot had been ringing non-stop.
"Ah, you're calling from Nantes," says Le Gourrierec, who is vacationing in the Vosges. "Come to Alsace, it's beautiful, and there's plenty to see," she recommends, and then hangs up. Afterwards, she records the call with the time in a well-worn school notebook that lies in the cabin.
Since the French magazine "Paris Match" reported last month that Murbach's phone booth with the serial number 468 is the last of its kind in the country, it's been hard to find a moment of peace in the cabin. The hexagonal telecommunications relic, whose doors are missing, has become a tourist attraction.
Anyone can answer
Occasionally, locals or visitors pick up the blue receiver. There are no fixed rules in this secluded community near Guebwiller in the Haut-Rhin department. "Anyone can answer. And then you ask where these people are calling from, and you write down their name," reports local resident Marie-Claude König. "We find it totally astonishing," says the Alsatian, looking at the commotion.
The municipality can't say much about the rare object with retro charm. They don't even know when the cabin was installed by the former national telecommunications company France Télécom, according to the town hall.
A spokesman for the successor company Orange confirmed to the German Press Agency that Murbach indeed has the last still functioning cabin in the whole country. Besides that, there are two other "Publiphones," or public phones, for example in a town hall. But not in a cabin. You can't pay at the three remaining devices. "It's only possible to receive a call."
Actually, Murbach, not far from the border with Baden-Württemberg, is known for its mighty abbey from the Middle Ages. Now, the local tourist guide also points out the new attraction of the village with around 170 inhabitants, namely the phone booth, reports visitor Le Gourrierec. The village lies in an area that is simply called "Zone blanche" ("white zone") in France. Mobile phone coverage is therefore poor or non-existent depending on the location.
Tourist: "Like I'm in the wrong movie"
"I think it's mega-strange," says German tourist Renate Gebhard. She also came to Murbach for the abbey and discovered the ringing phone booth. "I thought I was somehow in the wrong movie."
The curious cabin has sparked interest in many media and social networks. In the tattered call log on the shelf, there are names from France, Belgium, Switzerland, the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, and Canada.
Le Gourrierec mentioned that she was currently vacationing in the beautiful Alsatian region, specifically in Nantes' proximity. Visitors to Murbach, intrigued by the phone booth, often come from various parts of France, including Nantes.
