It wasn't the look and feel that was impressive, it was what you could do with it. You could book train tickets, pay bills, do most interactions with government

It wasn't the look and feel that was impressive, it was what you could do with it. You could book train tickets, pay bills, do most interactions with government, order from catalog retailers. This at a time when most transactions in stores were paid by cheques still! Even after the Web exploded, it took almost a decade to get even close to the ubiquity of being able to do things _ONLINE_ everywhere else. As for the sex services, I can only assume that they were wildly popular given the amount of money spent advertising 3615 ULLA on every train and bus. Given the French penchant for adultery, I expect it was quite a convenient service.