Those of us who have been on lots of MOT’s might think we know all the rules we need to comply with on French roads, but beware: there are NEW laws introduced this year with so little publicity that many French drivers don’t even know about them yet!
Please make yourself and other MOT’ers aware of the following:
As always, neither I personally nor the MOT in general accept any liability for the above information and you should take suitable advice and make your own decisions in relation to compliance with French …

How’s that saying go – “when in Rome…”? You could just carry on as normal on the left (and more than one of us has done it, with ‘interesting’ results), but it’s probably safest to go with the flow and drive on the right like (almost) everyone else.

Be especially careful when setting off from service stations or restaurants on the left side of the road.

Take care when overtaking – allow more space between you and the car in front so you can see further down the road ahead.

France has strict …

Very short trip this year (one intrepid participant won one of the Number Plates for completing the shortest ever distance to an MOT, of just 19 miles on the road from his home to the site!). Having missed out on MOT last year after being carted off to hospital with peritonitis, I was glad of the opportunity to get back in the saddle. Completely uneventful trip – always a bonus – and arrived on site lunchtime Saturday. That evening was the usual Welcome Drinks, and as usual there was a …

RALLY REVIEW – our holiday by Ian and Sue Portsmouth
It doesn’t seem to matter how much you plan for an MOT, deciding on the route to take, getting the car prepared; it is rare that all goes according to that carefully formulated plan, and so it was with us. Sue and I travelled through the Channel Tunnel on the Thursday afternoon, and booked into the B&B Hotel in Calais that we had arranged months previously. Our fellow travellers, Lynn and Dave Portwood, with their daughters Philippa and Jessica, travelled the …

Note from the webmaster: Apologies, but the photos I have for this article didn’t survive the transfer to the new website. If you have some of this event, please pass them on!
 
Imagine you are the Dutch-speaking manager of a riverside campsite in Diekirch, a little town in Luxembourg: last summer you accepted a large group booking from some pleasant English people for a car rally in May 1988. It is now Friday, 26th May, 1988 and it has rained heavily for 48 hours. You have just realised that the arrival …

Minors on Tour 2009 will be in the sunny Vendee region on the Atlantic coast of France, from Saturday 23rd to Saturday 30th May 2009.
We, Pam and Ash Holmes, will be leading the team of volunteers making the arrangements for MOT 2009 and hope that for next years’ MOT there will be even more people offering to contribute by organising events on what we are sure will be an enjoyable rally. It will be the 27th MOT.
The Vendee is an area full of interesting and entertaining things to do and …

Thonnance les Moulins is a very small village set in the heavily wooded rolling hills of the Haute-Marne département of the Champagne-Ardenne region of northern France.
Joinville, the nearest large town, is about 14kms to the west: it straddles the River Marne and the Canal de la Marne à la Saône, and has all the facilities you should need, including hypermarkets, banks, a Tourist Office, cafés, bars and restaurants.
The small town of Poissons, with shops, cafés, bars and restaurants is just a short drive (4kms), or a nice walk, from the …

Minors on Tour 2007, the Silver Jubilee – Saturday 26th May to Saturday 2nd June 2007.
The rally preview article appeared in the September/October 2006 issue of Minor Matters.
The venue for the event will be Camping Les Saules at Cheverny in the Loir-et-Cher region of central France, about 8 miles south-east of Blois.
The region is perhaps most famous for its many Chateaux, varied in age, size, and architectural style, some classed as ‘Royal’, many with wonderfully landscaped gardens, others with interesting museums and displays, and all of them worth visiting. It …