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To fit a French plug please make sure that they are wired correctly:

Remember the colour code

BROWN to the LIVE (L) terminal;
BLUE to the NEUTRAL (N)
GREEN/YELLOW to the EARTH (E) terminal.

You will note that a lot of French plugs do not identify the live (L) or neutral (N) terminal.

Sockets are installed with the earth pin upwards and wired with left as ‘neutal’ and right as ‘live’, so the plug must be wired to match this.

1. The best thing to do is purchase a pair of wire strippers from any DIY shop, this is the correct tool for the job, and will not damage the cable or you.

2. When stripping back the insulation make sure that you do not cut through the insulation on the individual cores, if you do you must cut if off and start again.

3. Remove the insulation from the individual cores (Brown, blue and green/yellow), trim it back so that the amount of copper wire showing will neatly fit into the terminal. When the screw is finally tightened the copper should not be seen.

4. When all the wires have been fitted, place the cable in the cable grip and make sure that none of the wires are in the way of the cover fixing screw hole, as this will damage the cable when the cover is fitted. Screw together the outer cover.

5. Stand back and admire your workmanship.

(plug viewed from the rear)

You may also want to buy some plug adapters (available at major airports and ferry crossing points, as well as some UK DIY shops and some major supermarkets in France also stock them) These are required for moulded transformer plugs (mobile phone charges, laptops etc) you can also use these to plug in the most important items until you get around to changing all the plugs. Remember removing moulded plugs and replacing them with French plugs may invalidate your warranty/guarantee.