Vive la Différence?

 There are many advantages, and of course, some disadvantages, in living in France, and readers of this blog will have heard me enumerate them often enough. The climate, chiefly (we are sitting with the front door open to the autumn sunshine) the cheaper and of course rural life etc. There are no doubt disadvantages, though I can`t at the moment think of them... Then there are differences which may be one or the other.. One of the differences which anyone renovating a French house will encounter, is the electrical system.
  Now the British system is relatively recent and is of course different to everyone else in the world, quelle surprise!. It is built around the well known 13 amp square-pinned plug. In effect, each appliance connected to the system has its own fuse. The power can therefor be supplied by loops serving many plug sockets or lights. Each loop has its own big fuse back at the main distribution board. The advantage is that only a few wires come out of the main board. The disadvantage is a large unwieldy plug which won`t fit any other known socket on earth...
  In France, this loop system is not only not seen, it is illegal. The plugs are not fused, and look tiny to British eyes, especially the smaller ones for small, twin wired items. If the iten needs an earth, the plug is a little bigger, as you can see in the header pic. The disadvantage is that the circuits are fused back at the main board, so each socket, or say up to three, have a separate spur of wire, and the bunch of wires coming out of the main board have to be seen to be believed! Both systems work, both have their points, you pays your money and.... in fact you have no choice! It`s a draw...
   The other major system difference is the hot water supply. In Britain, the water for your shower is heated by gas or electricity straight from cold, as you use it. Advantage-- unlimited supply, available straightaway. Disadvantage, low rates of flow, especially in winter, when the mains water is very cold. You have a choice between a trickle of hot water, or a good flow of luke warm, neither very appealing! Plus, in France, the electricity supply is generally too low to run an electric shower heater, as we found out to our cost when we tried to install one.
 The alternative in France is to have your shower supplied from the hot water tank. We get all the very hot water one could desire at the shower-head. Simple, but impossible in the UK!  The reason is that Uk hot water tanks are at atmospheric pressure, while in France they are at mains pressure, by having the cold supply connected to the tank, illegal in Britain, for fear that there will be a reverse flow which might contaminate the supply. Some genius in France has suggested that a non-return valve could solve this, rocket science or what! The problem of over-pressure of the tank was solved by a small pressure-relief valve, shown in my pic to vent off a small amount of water . The result--steaming hot, copious showers, what luxury!  Vive la différence!

   Bye for now, off to enjoy a shower!