Mr. Bazire is now developing programs for touch-screen computers and smartphones that he hopes will replace the Minitel among farmers here. There has been little interest in the new technology, though, and just a few dozen devices are in use. Mr. Bazire fears that, despite decades spent on the Minitel, some farmers may revert to paper registries.

While they are among the last to rely on the Minitel, farmers were by no means the only ones to use and adore the network in its heyday. By the mid-1990s, 9 million Minitel devices were in use in France, with 25 million users, or nearly half of the population, said Karin Lefevre, the divisional director at France Télécom-Orange who has overseen the Minitel network. In 1996, almost 26,000 different services were available, developed by 10,000 companies and technology start-ups. (A number of successful French tech entrepreneurs got their start developing services for the Minitel.)

Early on, the French authorities had hoped to export their invention, but they insisted that the Minitel be sold as an “all inclusive” system, said Valérie Schafer, a telecommunications historian. That inflexibility helped make the Minitel a commercial failure outside France, Ms. Schafer said, especially given the varied telecommunications norms in Europe and elsewhere.

“Everyone envied us for it,” Ms. Schafer said, citing what she called a well-worn phrase. “No one bought it.”

In France, though, the Minitel was ubiquitous for nearly two decades. Even as late as 2007, the network generated well over $100 million in revenue for France Télécom-Orange and the publishers of online services.

There were once services to check stocks, apply to college or consult bank statements. As a teenager, Ms. Lefevre checked her results for the baccalauréat, the national high school exit exam, on the Minitel in her parents’ bedroom in Paris.

Most of the services no longer exist, but among the last functioning Minitel programs are the “messageries roses,” the “pink message services” that were the world’s first adult chat rooms. They were once advertised on billboards, condemned by conservative politicians and mentioned in pop songs, including Michel Polnareff’s plaintive 1989 ballad “Goodbye Marylou.”