Adapteurs

I just sent an important message to a friend who’s going to the Cannes Film Festival for the first time, and I thought I’d share it with anyone else who’s also going but has never been: If you don’t bring an electrical adapter (i.e., adapteur) that looks almost precisely like the one shown in these photos, then you are dead in Cannes.

I’m not talking about a power converter, but an adapter. And it has to be the exact same shape because all the French power receptacles in walls and electric multi-plug strips are recessed, so it’s not good enough to just have a converter with those two rounded metal plugs — you need the kind I’ve got here because the rounded white plastic base from which the metal plugs extend fits into the recessed area.

American travel stores will sell you French power converters with the metal plugs sticking out but they’re worthless because they’re flat — lacking a small protruding base as shown here — which prevents the plugs from fitting into the recessed area.

If you can’t score one of these wherever you live in the US you’ll need to go to buy one at FNAC, a big electrical department store on rue d’Antibes, which is more or less parallel to the Croisette. They sell these adapters there. There’s another similar store near FNAC that sells them also.

But buy them early. What happens is that people swarm into Cannes on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then quickly realize they don’t have the right adapter because their power converters won’t fit into the recessed power outlets, and they freak out and run over to FNAC and buy up all the adapters. Yes, all of them.

I’ve never known the Cannes FNAC guys to stock up on extra adapters to meet the increased festival demand — a day or two into the festival and they’ve always run out. Every damn year.

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31 thoughts on “Adapteurs”

  1. Wow, I can’t believe there are people going to Cannes who don’t know this. This is World Travel 101, and if you’re not aware of it, then you’re the REAL Eloi. Let me know who you are, I’ll look forward to reading your festival dispatches.

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  2. Wells: Just wondering here but what is your computer situation? Do you use a Macbook AND a regular PC laptop as well? Got a desktop? Just curious what you use to keep it all going and working orderlywise.

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  3. I’ve been up on adapters for a long time, Glenn. As I said, US travel stores and electronic stores commonly sell French power converters that don’t include the protruding adapter, and without the adapter they’re worthless. I’ve talked to many, many sales people in New York who don’t even know what I’m talking about when I mention the necessity of an adapter.

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  4. I had a similar issue on a trip to Prague… bought a converter but it didn’t fit into any of the recessed wall receptacles so was nigh-useless.

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  5. This is a very handy post with almost suspicious timing. I’m off to Paris tomorrow for a week.

    I had been wondering about power adapters, and then BOOM! – there’s Wells with the answer.

    Thanks dude,

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  7. Does the UK still use those gi-normous three-pronged bastards?

    (I haven’t been in a couple of years)

    It’s one thing if it’s a vacuum cleaner or toaster but there was something so incongruent about a high-end, high-tech, futuristic, computer chip-running electronic device attached to a fat, clunky, beige, Lloyd George-era power plug.

    Fookin ‘el.

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  11. A film blog that’s travel savvy AND electrical engineering savvy…now that’s service.

    I’ve been to the U.K. and Spain recently and they didn’t use the recessed type outlet that Jeff describes. Are those type only used in France?

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  12. Travis: UK plugs are ace. They’re massive, fat things, but the three-pronged, blocky design means they stay in their sockets a lot better than the weak-ass two-pronged flimsy American ones that fall out with a slight tug. If you trip over a wire in your home in the States, your DVR shuts off in the middle of Lost. If you trip over a wire in the UK, you break your nose.

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  13. Well, that certainly explains a lot about British noses.

    Same thing for the electric toothbrushes, then?

    Oooooh, low blow, low blow..

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  14. Also, the Brits are running 220 whopping volts through those sumbitches. I found that out the hard way one night reaching in the dark for a lamp switch. The bulb had been removed and my finger found its way into the socket. My heart nearly defibrillated through my chest cavity.

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  15. Went to London last summer for the first time in 12 years. Bought a humongous converter, with multiple plugs, that could supposedly be used just about anywhere. Probably added 2 pounds to our luggage.

    When we got to the hotel, our room had an outlet bank with multiple different types, including U.S. Even had a switch for different voltages. I wish every hotel room did. I also wish I hadn’t had to lug the stupid converter across the pond and back.

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  17. I involuntarily read the word ‘adapteur’ in my head using the fake french accent George uses in the Seinfeld episode when he’s guarding the suit. “Can I help youuu?”

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  19. I have a universal adapter that has been my traveling saving grace (there are so many different requirements in Europe that it can drive you completely insane). It is two-pronged, but the prongs can be manually adjusted to fit into any outlet, and it doesn’t have the bulky part at the bottom that gets in the way for recessed plugs.

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  20. Why do you think us Europeans have a different electrical system? It’s so stupid Americans never come back again, or suggest that we change our entire system to save you having to buy an adapter :)

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  21. It’s one thing if it’s a vacuum cleaner or toaster but there was something so incongruent about a high-end, high-tech, futuristic, computer chip-running electronic device attached to a fat, clunky, beige, Lloyd George-era power plug.

    Baby Bedding

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