Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Geneva Motor Show 2013

I'm looking at going to the Geneva Motor Show this year (7th to 17th March) and I'm going to drive down with my wife.

Anyone know a Morgan friendly and decent hotel that is not too far from the exhibition (i.e. one where you can park safely where they don't cram you in like sardines!!).

I'm going to go over on the Euro Tunnel, do an over night stop on route to Geneva and the same on the way back so again, if anyone know's of a good Morgan friendly hotel on route it would be appreciated.

Also open to any tips about travelling in Europe in a Morgan (done plenty of travelling in other vehicles so know the general requirements i.e. triangle, hi vis etc..).

Thanks all.

Not sure any hotelier will let you take the Morgan to bed with you

If you're travelling through France,don't forget to bring a breathalyzer test,as the French law requires this..

Depending on which way you're going, we've stayed when driving from Paris to the mountains in Chablis at http://www.hostellerie-des-clos.fr/ which is not too far off the A6 autoroute after Auxerre. This is about 2.5 hours from Geneva. The hotel was cheap (the room was about €80) clean and reasonably comfortable, but we found the restaurant really top notch; we spent considerably more in there than we did on our room. As I recall 'er indoors had oeufs en meurette (eggs poached in wine - a burgundy speciality) & I had a fricassé of snails to start, than we both had lobster cooked 3 ways as a main course, all washed down with lashings of excellent Chablis. The patronne arranged for the Morgan to sleep indoors with the tractors in a wine chai round the corner. All in all an excellent stay.

As to the breathalyser - you need to have two (in case they ask you to use one, so you still have one when you've done so) and they need to be NF (normes francaises). You can pick them up at a petrol station, or the eurotunnel terminal.

If you are going to drive on swiss motorways you'll need to buy a vignette when you pass through the frontier (about €40 as I recall, but valid for the whole of 2013) Watch out for the speed camera as you approach the frontier post as the speed limit gets brought down in increments - it's just after the final speed reduction & it's easy to get flashed as you're concentrating on trying to work out which lane you should be in (you can probably guess how I know about that one....)

This hotel in Troyes was very agreeable:

http://www.hotel-relais-saint-jean.com/

as was Troyes.

Do they really bother processing fines for foreign drivers, i have been flashed in Europe (France) several times using different vehicles and nothing has ever come of it !!

There has been a lot of people taking advantage of this in Italy. They have been buying cars either "leased" or registered in the name of someone in say Romania where insurance and taxes are much less and bringing the cars to Italy. They then park where they like, run speed and red light cameras and never pay the fines. If they have an accident in which they are at fault you can forget about ever getting a settlement.

The police have just arrested the largest, in money terms, all time fine evader in Milan. The region believes they have lost millions in revenue and unpaid fines so they are just about to drop on these guys like a ton of bricks.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1150662/Irish-police-hunt-foreign-motorist

The Irish justice system missed out for other reasons ......

There has been a couple of news stories about notorious lane fines or out of bound roads for tourists in Florence.

The theme was that it is very easy for a visitor to get caught by these signs and cameras and the local council is using it as a cash cow to fleece foreign visitors.

They do now chase other EU citizens - apparently it is now easier.

I always try and avoid parking fines or getting flashed when abroad as you just don't know when it might turn round and bite you. Should you get stopped by the police, say, and they find a number of unsettled speeding offences on their computer for your registration number, I would imagine that things could turn difficult.

The other thing worth remembering about driving in France is that being caught exceeding the speed limit by more than 30 km/h will lead to your licence being taken away from you on the spot (even if you're foreign - I know somebody this has happened to. He then had to return home on public transport and have his Ducati shipped home at vast expense). In extreme cases of speeding the police also have powers to impound and sell off or crush your vehicle.