F.I.C.C.

Rather than ordering your clean air sticker from an expensive service provider, you can obtain one far  more cheaply (€3.70 + €4.80 postage. i.e. €8.50) from the government website www.certificat-air.gouv.fr –. Click on the link on the homepage “Applying for your certificate“ or “Demander son certificat“ in the  black band at the bottom of the screen. Then take the queries in logical order, they are reasonably straightforward.  After giving the most important details about the vehicle which is to carry…

No other city offers quite so much to satisfy the needs of millennials as Amsterdam according to a study by Nestpick.  Every year this German agency carries out a survey among young people born between 1980 and 1999/2000 on the best place to live.  So this is based on the tastes of 20 to 30-year-olds.  They were asked about job offers, housing, gender equality, nightlife, festivals in the city and the speed of internet connections.  Taking all of these criteria…

As previously announced the Arlberg tunnel will be completely closed during the summer of 2017 in order to carry out essential repair work. Given that outfits are not allowed to travel over the Arlberg Pass, this would mean that campsites in West Tirol could only be reached by driving over the Fern Pass or via Innsbruck.  However camping mediators in the Tirol and Vorarlberg have negotiated a special arrangement for caravans.  Outfits will be permitted to drive over the Pass…

In the first months of this year, the sales of motorcaravans were up by 6.1% compared with the same period in 2016. According to NKC, there were 129 motorcaravan leasing companies in the Netherlands as of last December. There are now altogether 1,850 motorcaravans available for rent in the country and on average one in eight is rented for 15.3 days.  Compared with the previous year, the rental period for a motorcaravan has increased by 17% per booking. Source: Kampeerauto…

Antwerp also introduced a so-called “low emissions zone“ on 1 February 2017.  Delivery vans or trucks and motorcaravans with diesel engines that pre-date 1 January 2000 are not allowed to drive in or through the city. Source: De Caravan(NL)

According to ASEICAR, 842 caravans and motorcaravans were registered in Spain in April i.e. 72% more than in April 2016. There was an increase of 57% in caravans (from 129 to 203) and of 78% for motorcaravans (from 350 to 639 vehicles). Source: Encaravana (FECC-E)

A recently published study in the medical journal “Current biology” based on research in the USA shows how just one isolated weekend spent camping does help people who normally sleep badly.  When we are in the great outdoors, our inner clock quickly adapts to the natural day-night rhythm however long or short the days are.  In his  article entitled “Circadian Entrainment of the Natural Light-Dark Cycle across Seasons and the Weekend” Kenneth Wright and his team from the University of…

It was with great sadness that we heard at the end of April that Mr. Yvan Lafontaine had died.  Mr. Lafontaine was President of FQCC (Canada) from September 2014 to October 2016 and member of the F.I.C.C. Council from December 2013 to December 2016.   He had been very ill over the past year and was unable to attend F.I.C.C. Council meetings or international rallies. He was responsible for organising the cultural events during the international F.I.C.C. rally in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in…