Moving to France

Hi,

NYer living in Croatia here. Just about to ship my full AR system, Basis TT, Raidho C1s etc and found this online. I have no personal experience with so I can’t vouch, but I’m seriously considering it as it address both the V and Hz issues and can be dialed in, ie 230-220v/50Hz > 110-115/60 or the other way or 110-115/60Hz> 220-230/50Hz etc. Good feature if you get and 220 gear in the EU and want to bring it back to the 110 zone. Hope this is helpful.

Good luck with your gear and journey,

http://www.gohz.com/1kva-frequency-converter#tabs

Hi there
Welcome to France ! :-)
You can easily find step down transformers... that’s what people do when they don’t want to tweak their equipments. The recommandation is to take a transformer with 2x the needed power of your equipment.

A well know hifi tranformer brand (reasonably priced), made in Germany (they have various power available):
https://www.tubeampdoctor.com/en/tad-step-down-transformer-with-enclosure-1000va?number=VT1000ESG-S

ps, according to the write up on their page, you can program this thing to any exact frequencies you want. 240 to 117 or 239 to 112 etc.


http://www.gohz.com/1kva-frequency-converter#tabs

@asvjerry

As you point out, California is the accent of TV and the movies. It is therefore usually perceived as sophisticated, in my experience.

What a great place to move to, seriously, it was wonderful. You know French, so you’re good to go, I understood the French being unimpressed with visitors not showing even the respect to learn polite phrases while visiting them in their country. Making an effort to show respect goes a heck of a long way when traveling I have found.

I have been from Calais to Archachon, through the Pyranees and back across to Nice into Italia. I have stayed with a friend in Le Chesnay Versailles, and we drove all over France.

One of the biggest stand outs for me was Nimes, which was a Roman outpost, and the unlikely location for possibly the Worlds best preserved Roman Coliseum and Aqueduct system. It’s a photo opportunity and of hisorical significance if you’re into that kind of thing?

Not that I would have brought it up, but it has been already, well sort of, it’s not uncommon to find people walking dogs inside shopping centres, your wife will no doubt tell you, when you do see "stuff" you normally wouldn’t see. I was more than a little surprised in Cannes shopping centre with wall to wall marble and a stream of "stuff" just left on the floor.

Oh and the food, it’s simply exquisite! The family I stayed with thought I was such a nice guy to get baguettes in the morning, but I was actually getting myself chausson aux pommes, and demolished them on the way back with the bread.

Electricity is not such a problem as others have said, using a transformer to half the voltage will pretty much double your amperage, so you aught to have pretty decent Wattage using a good transformer like the one suggested.

@tony1954

Truth is France or Seattle, there are toilets everywhere if that is how you travel.

Just be sure to have a couple of Euro coins though when you’re out in Paris. Peeing in a four way cubicle (okay it absolutely wasn’t a cubicle) in the middle of the street took some gumption the first time.. But after the stage fright, it was all down stream from that.

Have fun areed622 Bon Voyage

@terry9 , well, the ad campaigns, camera angles and editing would give that impression. And growing up a native in the ’50’s through and into the ’80’s I regard as being ’more or less right places in the right times’....

And, for awhile, Tony Bennet was Right. Even Randy Neuman ("I Love LA")....We Did. *S*(wistful, tho...)

Then, a bumper sticker became popular:

Welcome to California!
(Now, GO HOME)

No one paid attention.
I started using the term ’combat traffic’
Quoting Churchy the Turtle from Walt Kelley’s ’Pogo’ strip:
"We have met the Enemy...and They is US!"
(The latter is back in vogue, I fear...)

I heard a stat the other night that chilled...

"More people in CA voted in ’16 for The Chump...(my fav description)
...than in all the other states Combined."

Now....I haven’t ’fact-checked’ that for total accuracy.
Bu the mere suggestion of it...
....makes me feel Absolutely In The Right Glide Path to be in NC to help try to paint it Blue.

Yes. I Am A Californicator. Old Skool & Proud.

Delete me if one must...but it changes Nothing.

Cheers, J

@asvjerry 

On reflection, more to it, I think. California is seen as 'The Big Time' for more reasons than Hollywood, aerospace, and what used to be the climate. That is the University of California, probably the best university system ever. Decade in, decade out. Not to mention Stanford. People of culture know these and honour them, even revere them. When they think of their best, California is their aspiration. (UC out-of-state alumnus)

@terry9 ....Agreed on the UC, and even the CSC systems; the education I received (once out of the public schools) was terrific.  Although never degreed, the courses I took allowed me to Really learn to think and not just 'absorb'....and the price required to do so relative to today was a bargain.

I opted for a more 'general education', the turmoil of the CA job market in my 'era', the 'distractions' in the 'kulture', the 'Nam war (fortunately, 4F; more luck than the disability that did exist), and a counselor that opined that  I was inately bright enough to do any damn thing I cared to.

Unfortunately, lugging cases of IBM punch cards which had to be hand prep'd on a keyboard was of no interest; the 'ground floor' of the 'puter revolution got bypassed...*shrug*  Oh, well....I like Win10 Pro better, anyway... ;)  That, and what I can make it do Now.  *G*

Being a generalist has served me well, overall.  Being a 'adaptable' peg that could fit many holes in different roles in a variety of places in many states.....

'Have Skills, Do Travel' *s*

The only thing I miss most of CA?  The beaches, mostly...

Portably Urs, J

Don’t forget to visit Brussels. Lived there a while.  Very generally speaking, the food is even better than in France. I had a voltage switch on my ARC gear at the time.

MC, "Stuck" in France?  You are kidding, I hope.

Some of your gear may have a 240 volt switch or terminals.  If not, check with a local repair shop.

Please don't leave this CORRUPTIBLE COUNTRY we still have some
COVID 19 that we need you to try out!!!!!. then you won't need your stereo or worry about voltage. the boys in congress need you!!

If I was moving to France permanently, I would sell my gear and buy new in France. If I was only living there for a few years, I'd buy some really nice Triangle speakers and a tube integrated when I got there. 

Moving to France

We are planning a move to France fairly soon. Does anyone know the best way to cleanly transform the 240v european voltage down to 117 without a bunch of hum?

You know I read this in National Geographic in a doctors waiting room, a year or so ago.
France has 117 or was it 170 mini nuclear power stations, that’s all they have to supply power to their country, I believe the power is free?
They are bomb proof, earth quake proof, and flood proof.

Cheers George

Congratulations on your move.