We've been to Leroy Merlin

Like a couple of yokels, we don't go to the big town much. Today we faced Tours for the first time in weeks, spending 6 hours in Leroy Merlin buying plumbing and electrical bits and bobs.

The electrical equipment is especially expensive, as French regulations restrict the number of lights and sockets on their respective circuits, and require that there are dedicated circuits for many of the items that we would expect to put on a normal circuit, such as a washing machine or dishwasher. As each of these circuits needs its own circuit breaker spending many hundreds of euros on the 'fusebox' for the house was easily accomplished. Of course, we could have saved quite a lot by buying really cheap equipment, but our electrician wasn't happy about that, so we compromised by using ABB equipment instead of Legrand, as this was about 20% cheaper.

We have chosen to have the house rewired as the existing wiring does not meet the current regulations and, in our opinion, is fundamentally unsafe. So, while it is expensive, we are glad that the rewiring is finally underway.