Eek - thanks!
I’m wondering now if we shouldn’t just buy an internet connection - with a house attached, if possible 
And I’ve just noticed your surname!
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Didn’t detect any problem there Steve so no worries. It’s a complex subject and just glad to point you in the right direction.
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if you have a problem with reception 
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Wow - they’ve let the Eiffel Tower go a bit!
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@SteveRussell Sound advice from Brian here. If you buy your own phone (from whatever source), it widens your options when not tied to a particular operator.
Look for deals sans abonnement (no contract) (the opposite of what you were going to research) 
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Wow - thanks, didn’t know that 
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eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee - I see, not on the laptop then!
Nope, but an iPad or tablet will often work. Keyboards on laptops and PCs will require the use of key combinations dependant on the OS in use. My Linux PC can use a combination of a compose key (set as the right Windows key) and a combination of keys such as R Wine’ to produce é. The keys latch so you don’t have to perform finger Olympics to get them all pressed at the same time
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If you get a smartphone that isn’t tied to a supplier, e.g. through Amazon, or Argos, then you need to make sure that it has an option to provide a wireless access point (AP), or alternatively a Bluetooth connection, or failing that, USB connectivity to plug into your Linux laptop.
The problem with tied phones sold on contract (not all, but surprisingly quite a lot) is that the mobile providers don’t like you using your phone as a tether for data, and in some cases have disabled that capability in the phone operating system( certainly in older models of phone).
Most modern-ish smartphones come with a wireless AP function, that you switch on/off with a finger press (and recommended tethering password). Once the AP is on, it can usually be seen by any laptop within range. Before getting a Netgear 4G router with a data only SIM card from SFR, I used to use either of my Pocophone F1 or Mi9Pro as access points for pretty much any of the wireless enabled computing devices in the house, as they offered much better data rates than the crappy Orange DSL that we had. even today, 4G, when it is fully operational, is faster than Orange’s local DSL offering. The only reason I still keep the landline is because 4G is never 100%, and where we live at least, very weather and contention-ratio dependent. For example, in the summer hols, and on Wednesday afternoons, the radio signal tends to drop as the relay has to serve more connections. When the weather is foggy or misty, the signal also drops off.
There are other threads on this forum that discuss the merits of various SIM data contracts.
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Thank you - that makes sense to me.
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get a smartphone via https://www.hotukdeals.com/search?q=smartphone
when in France get a mobile contract via dealabs, that’s the French version of hotukdeals
search for ‘forfait mobile’…I’ve just picked up a deal with about 50gb for 3€/month
You can set up a ‘portable hotspot’ from your mobile so your other devices can connect
FYI orange own sosh…for your house connection stick with these…going with any of those other cowboys is asking for trouble when you get a problem…get a VDSL conection and you’re laughing
After 12 months you can swap and shouldn’t be paying more than €20/month
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Given that @SteveRussell mentioned he wanted to work from home
50 Gb might not be sufficient for his needs… Some deals are 200 Gb/month and issues then can ensue if the reseau is throttled under a fair use policy. In such cases, you might get a better reseau using a ball of string 
maybe not but that’s a shedload of data 
if he’s feeling adventurous he can get 2 contracts 
most of them are ‘sans engagement’ in any case, you just pay 10€ up front for the sim
I have a pro “unlimited” deal with SFR. Well thanks to lockdown, I discovered that it is in fact limited, to 130Gb, as I managed to exceed the limit this month, and was put on “fair use” notice. Needless to say, I wasn’t too impressed. With both of us working from home, and our computers synching to external cloud systems, it can be quite surprising how much data gets used up per month. Have to say, though, this is the first time since March that we’ve exceeded the limits.
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that’s where all your data is going, you do realise this ‘cloud system’ is just ‘someone else’s computer’? have you thought about looking after your own data? that way when the russian’s hack ‘someone else’s computer’ you won’t be compromised 
Our Bouygues 4G deal is illimité and checking each month we come very close to 200 Gb using 2 PCs, two iPads, 2 smart Phones and the Molotov app on the Samsung TV for French channels.
Redundance has always been my motto. Local rsync to an external disk, as well as cloud synching, plus a distributed synch using “syncthing”.
In my old firm, I used to take the tape backups home with me at the weekend in case we had a fire at work…
I agree with Alex. Local storage is all well and good but if you suffer a break-in and your gear is nicked 
Cloud based systems like Dropbox (which has a Linux client) are very strong these days. I use DB, Google and a local NAS for belt, braces and then some. The DB syncs to the local drive, which is backed up to the NAS which in turn once a week is backed up to a USB drive.
You are only as good as your last backup.