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This is a bit of a cheeky post, but I'm hoping that someone can give me some pointers. I've just arrived at our little home in Brittany, France, for a week's holiday only to find the immersion heater not working. Other than the kettle, this is our only method of heating water and I really, really hate cold showers so I wondered if anyone can give me an idea of what has happened before I have to ring an outrageously expensive plumber/electrician on Monday morning. We have relatively modern electrics, the place was renovated about 12 years ago. It has a consumer unit with all the standard trips for the circuits in the house, one of which is dedicated to the immersion. All other circuits are working normally, but the immersion is drawing no power when switched on. It doesn't cause anything else to trip when it gets switched on. We were last here in May and everything was working then. When we left, we switched off the water and the electrics for the immersion and the downstairs circuit with the fridge. As evidenced by the dust and cobwebs, no one has been in the place between now and then. When we arrived today, I put the water back on, followed by the electricity for fridge and immersion. The consumer unit is a French one, IP40 from LeGrand, if it makes any difference. I've switched off the mains a couple of times, tried emptying and re-filling the hot water tank before again trying the immersion. Nada. Or should that be 'rien'. Can anyone give me an idea of what may be wrong? I don't propose fixing it, but just want to know the correct point to interject with 'your having a laugh' in my very best French at the appropriate point during a conversation with a plumber.