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Hi,

I've just booked to stay in Les Mouettes camping site in Brittany this summer.

A couple of questions I have, that hopefully someone will be able to help me with:

1) Will I need to take an adapter lead to plug my mains cable into the electricity? I bought a 2 pin to 3 pin adapter at the Welsh caravan show last weekend but not sure if I will need this?

2) Do I have to worry about reverse polarity at this site?

Best Regards

1. Why leave the adapter at home when you are going to France, you may or may not need it but it does'nt take up much room.

2. You should also take a reverse polarity cable and tester just in case although some people will advise you that it does not matter if the polarity is reversed or not.

Always take a French 2 pin plug adaptor when caravanning in France. As for reverse polarity, I never worry about it, Its a non issue if you have modern electrical appliances marked with the Euro standard CE mark, they have double insulated switches. As for the polarity on that particular site or any other site in France, you will find it will vary between individual electrical sockets around the site.

As mentioned above, take the adaptor, some sites will be modern euro blue plugs, others will be old 2pin plugs, but a cheap polarity checker (unless your van has one built in) if it shows to be incorrect, just swap the live/neutral in the plug, so take a screwdriver and find out how to take the plug apart before you go if your unsure. Also remember that a lot of sites in France will have a lower overload trip, sometimes as low as 5amp, so normal kettles. toasters won't work.

So find out what the mains rating is before you go, to work out what your appliances take in amps just divide 240v into whatever the wattage of the appliance is, so a 2kw heater is 2000w, 2000w divided by 240= 8.3amps.

I've just picked up a mains polarity tester off ebay for £1.95, so I'll kep this in my "box of tricks" and I'll give the mains a test before I hook up.

Thanks for all your help.