British 3 cordless 'phone set

[Chocolate]

Can we use our British telephones in France?  The set consists of a base station, with an answer-phone, and 2 cordless handsets that re-charge from the mains plug in the room we choose to use them in. The problem is that the base station has an English BT plug to connect it to the 'phone line and not the large French one. Can we change this plug ourselves? We have seen the plugs for sale, but don't know how to wire them up onto the 'British' cable coming from the base station. Where could we find a booklet or diagram to help us? (We know how to change the 13amp mains plugs to French ones.) Or perhaps there is an adaptor; on the lines of the electrical adaptors used when travelling so that we would not have to re-wire at all, just plug into an adaptor which then plugs into the French telephone socket in the house. 

Also, can we use the answerphone for when our English non-French speaking friends 'phone? An elderly relative and some non-French speaking friends can't cope with the FTelecom messagerie system. (Neither can I a large part of the time!)

The three-phone set was bought in England and is less than a year old. The new owners of our house had their own telephones but as ours were so new we decided to bring them with us rather than throw or give them away. 

[Coco]

We brought a similar set over from the UK because we'd had it less than a year and paid quite a bit for it!  It works absolutely fine and if it's that new the connector should just unplug from the phone end so you can swap it for a French one without having to get into rewiring problems.

[Ecossais]

Chocolate,

 

Can you unplug the telephone line cable from your phone (at the telephone end?)  As Coco as found, some UK telephones will work OK in France if you simply replace the UK line cable with a French one.  You should be able to buy a French telephone line cable from the electrical department of a hypermarket or electronics shop for under £5.

 

However, some UK telephones will not ring on incoming calls if you just replace the UK cable with a French one.  This is due to differences in the way the ringing circuit is wired.

 

I’d try the above first – if you find your phones don’t ring, you will need to connect a UK master telephone socket to your French telephone socket and then plug the phone into your UK socket.

 

You can buy a master socket from Maplin or an electronics shop in the UK.  You need to connect terminals 2 and 5 in the UK socket to the top 2 connections on the left side inside the FT socket with a short piece of telephone cable.

 

This company used to sell a neat ready made BT > FT socket adapter which has the master socket components to make the phone ring.  I’ve just had a look at their site, but there are no French adapters at the moment (maybe they’re just temporarily out of stock?)  http://www.revealcable.co.uk/acatalog/Telephone_Country_Adapters.html

 

[Deimos]

I brought a UK telephone over when I moved here and it would not ring. However, I already had the telephone so it was nothing wasted. Seems quite variable and depends on the telephone.

Ian

[Gyn_Paul]

even worse - sometimes you swop the UK cable for a French one and plug it in and it rings continuously! If this happens, you can try swopping the two wires over; it sometimes cures it. 

 

p

[Chocolate]

Thank you everyone for your advice. Especially thanks to Ecossaise for the clear instructions. Haven't replied until now as there has been sooooo much work to do, then I couldn't find the 'phones as they were packed away again out of the dust and grit.

Yes they do have an un-pluggable plug! Hadn't thought to look before. Off to the shop tomorrow to try the first option of a French cable rather than any rewiring. I will post back if all goes well.