Compuserve
How come you expect to get Internet access free in a foreign country? You will either have to pay for the 'phone calls or the ISP subscription or both.
I have used Compuserve in France, Italy and US recently connecting through a Sony notebook using my mobile 'phone as well as hotel phones. The neat trick I used before the most recent trip was to set up the connection here in UK before setting forth to prove that it worked. Hotel calls when in Italy were not unreasonable. Adapters are available in department stores here.
The hotel calls might be free if you were to use AOL. I toured France with a US chum and I believe he was making free local 'phone calls to an AOL point-of-presence. But, of course, he was paying an AOL subscription back home in US.