Photos: Caen's NFC pilot in action

How the French have embraced the wireless lifestyle

The city of Caen in Normandy is the home of the largest near field communications (NFC) trial. Some 200 of the town's inhabitants have been using the technology in their everyday lives, at shops and around a dozen other locations in the city.

The Abbaye des Hommes, once home to William the Conqueror's men, has gone all high-tech for the trial with its own NFC point.

Photo credit: Jo Best

Here a plaque outside the Abbaye offers tourist information using NFC.

If a tourist places their NFC-equipped mobile against the Flytag logo – in the upper left hand corner of the sign – information about the Abbaye will be transmitted directly to the phone, either by phone call or SMS.

Photo credit: Jo Best

Laurent Duchelet is just one of the triallists who uses his NFC mobile to pay for his weekly shop by placing his phone on a reader by the till.

Duchelet told silicon.com, for a non-techie, he's a fan of the "practical" technology.

Photo credit: Jo Best

Another application that Duchelet uses every day is this parking facility, which issues NFC users with virtual tickets and charges them for their stay.

Photo credit: Jo Best