Hi Richard O’Brien,
I’m glad to hear your traveling to France. Beautiful place to travel to. I’ve been there a few times along with many other places throughout the world. I recently returned from the Batics which included Russia. Lets get to the point of the posting. Don’t worry about your tapes, you’ll be fine only if you carry on your tapes onto the plane. Let it go through the x-ray machine. That’s no problem. I shoot with a Canon GL2 and use Maxell tapes. Usually I bring around 12 tapes with me. All the years I’ve traveled, never had a problem with my tapes or CF cards for my Canon 40D. Never, never check in your tapes with your luggage. The x-ray machines will destroy your tapes.
Best of luck!
Happy Travels,
Ralph Hajik