Unseasonal weather means most mountain passes – including some super-high roads – are still open. Also, winter tyres now mandatory in Austrian ice and/or snow and parts of Italy.

Plus, the results are in from the UK/European police’s road crime campaign. Trouble at the Turkey-Bulgaria border. Cars torched in Istanbul suburb. Drivers in France can now take to the roads from the age of fifteen. Students in Zurich break the word acceleration record.

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MOST MOUNTAIN PASSES STILL OPEN

Mild weather means even some super-high roads are still driveable, but winter tyres are a must.

H28 Ofenpass near the Italian border in east Switzerland: Open (Offen, Ouvert, Aperto) as opposed to Closed (Geschlossen or Gesperrt, Ferme, Chiuso). Photo @DriveEurope.

Russia is looking forward to thirty five years of severe winter weather with temperatures routinely expected to reach -33⁰C this January.

Meanwhile the rest of the Continent braces ahead of a predicted Arctic Winter.

So far however temperatures have been quite mild. Heavy rain this week in the Alps, especially the west, may mean more snow at the highest altitudes. Lower down however, the snow which fell the week before last will be washed away (and might even cause major flooding).

Low temperatures are not expected generally until mid-November at the earliest.

The net effect is that more mountain passes than usual are still open.

According to the ADAC’s Alpine Road Report, the only roads definitely closed so far are Great St. Bernard, Furka, Grimsel, Susten and Klausen Passes in Switzerland; Grossglockner, Maltatal and Nockalmstrasse in Austria; Gavia and Passo di Pennes (overnight) in Italy and Agnel in France.

Staller Sattel in Austria closes today while Timmelsjoch and Solkpass shut this week.

Nufenen, San Bernardino and Little St Bernard in Switzerland, Umbrail and Stelvio in Italy and the super-high Galibier in France (2704m, 8870ft) are all on notice but no dates have been set yet says the ADAC.

Meanwhile, from 1 November, winter tyres are compulsory in Austria in wintery conditions, and in mountainous areas of Italy (see more on Winter Tyre Rules Around Europe).

While winter tyres (or snow chains) are not needed by law in some countries, e.g. Switzerland, they should be used in all mountain regions. Weather conditions can change without warning. For more on Alpine roads see our PassFinder.

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Fourteen European police forces along with 43 of their local UK counterparts seized 555 vehicles and arrested 1,073 suspected criminals – including twenty on outstanding EAW European Arrest Warrants – during last month’s Operation Trivium, a week long campaign ‘targeting foreign criminals on British roads’. At least one of the impounded vehicles was fitted with a concealed fuel tank. See the hour long programme, including footage shot live, at tispol.org/trivium/

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roundup: BULGARIA. Complaints from Turkish truck drivers about alleged corruption saw national security agency DANS close the Lesovo border crossing yesterday according to Novinite news agency. It’s not clear if/when it reopens (update: the border point has now re-opened). TURKEY. Seven cars were torched in a mystery attack in Küçükçekmece, a western suburb of Istanbul early on Sunday morning says Today’s Zaman. Meanwhile, vehicle scanners – to detect, among other things, radioactivity – are to be rolled out this year at the country’s 22 border crossing points says Trend news agency. FRANCE. As of 1 November (Saturday) French drivers can get behind the wheel from the age of 15, as long as they are accompanied. They can take the test from seventeen and a half, and drive unaccompanied from age eighteen.

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Students from Zurich’s ETH technical university broke the world acceleration record today. AMZ Racing Team’s ‘Grimsel’ electric car raced from rest to 100kmh in 1.785s at the military airfield in Dubendorf to the east of the city. The previous record stood at 2.134s, set by students from Delft in the Netherlands. The four wheel drive Grimsel weighs 168kg and produces 200bhp from four in-wheel motors. Combined torque stands at 1630Nm. The top speed was achieved in less than thirty meters. Team sponsors included BMW Group and Caterpillar.

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More than 4,500 miles through six countries in eleven days. One of our worst trips, or one of the best? Certainly one of the most expensive.

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Iberia Circumnavigation: the A-8 ‘Autovia del Cantabrico’ coastal motorway, northwest Spain. More pictures, and map, below.

The car clocked past 20,000 miles on the road to Besancon. By the time it reached the UK, a week later, the odo read 23,492 miles. On top of the 1,100 miles already covered on the way to eastern France, it made for a total of 4,592 miles in eleven days.

Never in a million years would normal people attempt this journey, from the north of mainland Europe to the very south – and back – well within the annual fortnight.

If the mileage alone isn’t off-putting enough – an average of 420 miles per day overall, or 510 on actual driving days – then what about the road tolls?

A total of £313.66, just for the receipted ones. The Portuguese automatic toll charges are yet to show up on the credit card statement.

All that said, the biggest thing we take away from this trip is that it was possible at all.

We were so surprised to reach northwest Spain on schedule – after driving down to Gibraltar from the Dutch North Sea and up the Atlantic Coast through Lisbon – that we hadn’t done any planning.

For instance, who knew Santiago de Compostela was twenty five miles inland? Or that the coast to the west – Costa da Morte (the rocky Coast of Death) – is, apparently, one of the most beautiful in Europe? Or that La Coruna, occupying its own promontory – home to the very first Zara clothes shop, the world’s oldest lighthouse and the characteristic Galerias, glazed balconies to protect from the rain – is an industrial hellhole?

Or that, particularly, the northwest coast, in sharp contrast to the south of Spain, is completely unspoilt and almost completely lacking in tourist infrastructure?

We felt incredibly lucky to find, at 21:30, a new-build Best Western resort in Viveiro for the all-in price of €68. So grateful in fact we didn’t mind being kept awake half the night by the sound of waves crashing onto the beach 200ft below.

In terms of boxes ticked we achieved quite a lot: a drive up the causeway Delta Works on the south west Dutch coast; exploring the wild north east Netherlands (on foot and by bike); inspecting on-going works on the bottleneck A31 Emstunnel at Leer; a drive down the A45 ‘Queen of the Autobahns’, including a look at the award winning new Autobahn church at Wilden and a quick back road detour through the Sauerland; a whizz down the original Hitlerbahn A5 at Darmstadt; an update on ‘The Gap at Sarreguemines’ – the enduring lack of a north-south motorway connection between France, Germany and Luxembourg at Saarbrucken; sampling the motorways on the French side of the border down to Basel; cross-country across an outstanding corner of the fabulous Auvergne; an update on upcoming works on the A9 to the Spanish border; finally putting in some serious miles on Spanish motorways; Granada; the famous A397 Ronda road; seeing the border situation in Gibraltar for ourselves (tense, scary); Cadiz; and – most important – a first taste of Portugal, south to north.

Brace yourself to hear lots more about all of these in the near future.

The ones that got away however were pretty major. We had no choice but to stop for fuel in Millau – we were about to run out – but relying on the satnav, in the pitch dark, took us up the southern side of the valley and we missed the famous viaduct entirely save for its red-lit tips in the distance.

There was also no time to drive Veleta, Europe’s highest paved road, in the Sierra Nevada east of Granada.

And the Brittany Ferries’ boat back from Spain, across the Bay of Biscay – to complement our outbound P&O Hull-Zeebrugge sailing, across the North Sea in Force 9 winds – was booked solid by the time we got round to sorting it out.

That at least meant the opportunity to check out Bordeaux (and the new A63 and A10 upgrading) on the way back, though – severely over-confident now – we came back through Paris rather than the reliable A28 Le Mans-Rouen bypass.

The idea had been to finally fill the windscreen with the Arc de Triomphe – having spectacularly failed to do so on a previous trip – but a succession of accidents and incidents on the inbound A10 and A6, the A86 super-peripherique and then the outbound A1 too meant it took a traumatic four hours to drive through the French capital. It might be a while before we go back.

Instead of the 18:40 boat back from Calais we ended upon the 23:25. Thanks to P&O for re-arranging our booking with no fuss and no extra cost.

Writing within forty eight hours of getting back we still can’t decide if this trip – because of the wilful mileage – was one of our worst, or – because of the sheer variety – one of the best.

Granada.

To Gibraltar.

A-397 Ronda Road.

Viveiro.

Bordeaux.

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Last updated 18:00BST, Sunday 19 October.

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See below for The Week Ahead.

ROADS: A2 from Faversham towards Dover closed between the junctions with the M2 and the A28. Road re-opens 06:00 Monday. Recommended to take the M20. See below for road closures France.

Sunday traffic: not expected to be particularly busy. (update: very busy this evening). Most of the half-term traffic departed (early) yesterday with few returns due as yet. That said, decent weather – 30⁰C+ in south west France and Spain – may mean busy roads to and from the coasts. Switzerland is expecting some queues northbound to the Gotthard Tunnel. Lyon’s N346 ring road is closed northbound for the rest of the weekend, and the A630 ring Aquitaine Bridge both ways in north Bordeaux today.

Calais Migrant Crisis: Migrants seen attempting to board trucks in Caen.

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CHANNEL DELAYS: no delays but winds currently Force 7.

WEATHER ALERT: no Red or Amber weather alerts. Yellow for mist/fog north Germany.

WEATHER: settled for much of Europe. Very warm Spain. Cold Scandinavia, Russia.

GOTTHARD TUNNEL: northbound queue up to 3km, delay 35min.

MONT BLANC TUNNEL: ‘traffic is fluent’.

MAJOR TRAFFIC DELAYS: E40 eastbound Ostend-Brussels, heavy traffic, total delay still 40mins. A4 northbound to Namur, road works Dinant delay 60mins. A13 eastbound to Antwerp, accident Geel, delay 1h20.

A40 westbound up to Venlo/Dutch border, road works, closed, delay still 1h20.

Many minor roads northbound to Munich busy but no major delays. A96 southbound to Bregenz, road works at Leutkirch delay 55mins.

A2 northbound at Lucerne, road works, delay still 50mins + northbound A8 delay 45mins.

A4 eastbound to Milan, accident Novarra delay 60mins.

Earlier: now no delay A10 at Orleans, A5 to Karlsruhe. A58 eastbound into Breda, clearance work, delay down to 10mins. A2 westbound out of Hannover, earlier accident, delay down to 20mins.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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The Week Ahead: the international road crime campaign ‘Operation Trivium’ is broadcast live on the internet. The EU Transport Commissioner gets a grilling from sceptical MEPs. Snow due in the Alps. P&O launches a slick new website. And we go on holiday.

Violeta Bulc: EU Transport Commissioner-designate. Will she survive Monday’s grilling from MEPs?

Operation Trivium Live: footage from the third national operation targeting foreign criminals on UK roads will be broadcast live from 13:00 on Wednesday 22 October. Supported by every police force in England and wales, with observers from Belgium, Denmark, Latvia, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Lithuania, Poland and Romania, Trivium 3 runs until Friday. Watch it here, read more here or see #optrivium on Twitter.

EU Transport Commissioner hearing: the in-coming EU president has a second attempt at getting his nominee past MEPs (after the previous one was reshuffled). Slovenia’s Violeta Bulc raised eyebrows initially with her interest in shamanism and fire walking but has since impressed with ‘hard work and focus’. She’s completely new to transport. It’ll either be a car crash or a triumph. Watch it live here from 19:00CEST on Monday.

Alps snow: a very mild weekend is set to be followed by a much colder week with snow forecast in the Alps by Wednesday (it’s already snowing in Moscow). Thanks to the so-far unseasonable temperatures all mountain passes are currently open (Albula has reopened). However, Great St Bernard Pass in south west Switzerland closes tomorrow, 20 October, as always. Mug up on winter tyre rules around Europe here. Keep up to date with pass closures at the ADAC (German only).

New P&O website: the Dover-Calais operator is finally launching it’s long-time-coming, all singing, all dancing website this week. Maybe. In Germany only to start with – see poferries.de – but rolling out over here soon. Passengers will be able to slickly mix and match routes, manage add-ons and reserve special offers, among other things. It’s on mobile too. Check out the English preview here.

We’re away: see why/where we’re going here (Groningen to Gibraltar, hopefully). Normal service resumes Monday 3 November. Do not hesitate to contact us via @DriveEurope.

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An ambitious plan to drive from one end of the Continent to the other with lots of stop-offs along the way.

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The A7 Afsluitdijk causeway motorway in the northern Netherlands, Den Oever to Zurich. A firm favourite. Photo @DriveEurope.

Whatever happened to free-wheeling through Europe?

Back in the old days we set off with a map, money – car – and a couple of weeks off to see where we ended up, usually following the sun.

These days, because – despite driving 30,000 miles all over the Continent these past ten years there are still many important places we have yet to see – our trips are turning into box-ticking exercises…

Oh well, we have managed to plan in some spontaneity too but the hard points are pretty firm, from one end of the Continent to the other.

By happenstance we’re getting the P&O boat from Hull to Zeebrugge in Belgium on Monday for the remarkable price of £171, including ‘premier’ outside cabin. That’s quite cheap for an overnighter.

From there it’s up the Dutch coast on the causeway N57. Because it’s part of the massive, concrete, sea-taming Delta Works it’s unlikely our expectations of a viewsome coastal road will be met. Nevertheless it’s described as one of the engineering wonders of the world by the American Society of Civil Engineers and we’re excited.

From there we zip up to Amsterdam on the A4 then A7 north to Den Oever and our old-favourite Afsluitdijk causeway motorway (above) into the north Netherlands and Groningen.

Regular readers will be all too aware of the massive holiday jams at the Emstunnel on the A31 near Leer, just over the German border. We want to know what all the fuss is about though it might not be so evident in the depths of autumn..

We toyed with staying on one of the Frisian Islands off the coast but ended up renting an isolated cottage albeit not far from Groningen itself. The idea is to chill out for a few days.

After that hopefully we’ll be in the mood for some serious trans-Continental motoring as we finally put faces to names and check out the border situation on the ground in Gibraltar.

The complication is that rather than the direct route – almost exactly 1,600 miles – we want to drive the A45 ‘Queen of the Autobahns’ Dortmund-Frankfurt, make full use of our Swiss vignette and, rather than reacquaint ourselves with the summer-slog A7 Rhone Valley Lyon-Avignon, dodge west to Clermont and down the A75 to the Millau Viaduct.

How long this will take is anybody’s guess. We leave Groningen on Friday morning. Hopefully by Sunday evening we’ll be supping bears in the shadow of The Rock having taken in A-395 Veleta, Europe’s highest paved road, and the famous Ronda road too.

After Gibraltar plans are definitely woolly. Ideally we drive up to Spain’s northwest coast via Lisbon, just because, then catch the Brittany Ferries boat from Santander home on Thursday night… but honestly it all sounds preposterously ambitious, even to us.

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A new campaign to support efforts to re-establish the ferry link between the UK and Scandinavia launches today.

Also, Ebola checks, or not, in Dover, Eurotunnel and Gothenburg. Legal challenges to Denmark’s new fixed-link fail. Off-roading at the Mercedes G-Class’ spiritual home. A new 9.4km tunnel for Norway (and another across the Russian border) plus a look at life in a Siberian city.

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‘FERRY TO NORWAY’ CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED

Collecting data and comments on proposed ferry service + new forum.

Bergen harbour: photo VisitBergen.com/Per Eike.

It is almost unbelievable that there is no ferry service between the UK and Scandinavia.

DFDS operated the final route, between Harwich and Esbjerg, in Denmark, for 140 years until the last boat sailed at the end of September.

The company cited declining freight volumes and new clean fuel rules due in January for the service’s demise.

Now a new campaign has stepped in to support efforts to re-establish the link.

The man behind the ‘Ferry to Norway’ website, Trevor Roberts from Rotherham, is currently playing his cards close to his chest.

However, the idea seems to be to collect information from prospective passengers about preferred routes and how much they will spend. As of Sunday 19 October there is also a forum.

Norwegian Seaways has been in talks for some time over a new route between Newcastle, Stavanger and Bergen.

There has been no firm news recently. Norwegian Seaways Operations director Paul Woodbury flew to Stavanger earlier this month for what he described as ‘a final effort to fund and re-establish a UK/Norway ferry link’.

In the meantime, new operator Regina Line announced in August it will take over the Harwich-Esbjerg route from Easter 2015.

Despite the advert on the homepage, @DriveEurope is not connected in any way with the Ferry to Norway website though we do urge readers to get involved.

Also see @FerrytoNorway on Twitter for more information.

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‘Days of Night – Nights of Day’: a really fantastic set of documentary photographs about life in Norilsk, north central Russia, by Elena Chernyshova. During snowstorms buses travel in convoys of up to 20 vehicles, around the city three times each day, so passengers can be evacuated to another in case of mishap or breakdown. Europe’s most northerly city, with 170,000 inhabitants, built by Gulag prisoners in the 1930s, sits on the world’s largest deposits of nickel and is the world’s seventh most polluted. Temperatures reach -55⁰C in winter and dark lasts two months. See elena-chernyshova.com.

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roundup: EBOLA. There are no current plans to screen passengers at Dover for Ebola symptoms but in a statement the port says it ‘will support whatever measures the government deems appropriate’. Eurotunnel has previously said it would not be screening passengers either. Meanwhile, Gothenburg in Sweden said today it will step up checks says thelocal.se. DENMARK. Complaints over the financing of the upcoming Fehmarn Link have been rejected by the European Commission reports Copenhagen Post. Ferry firm Scandlines, which operates the Rodby-Puttgarden route shadowed by the rail-road tunnel due to open in 2021, said the fixed link was in receipt of illegal state aid, and enjoyed preferential tax terms. Last week it was revealed Fehmarn’s construction contracts are in the final stages.

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Anywhere else there would be huge fanfare over the building of a 9.4km tunnel. It might even have a name. But the Norwegians are almost casual in announcing the new Aarus-Gvammen Tunnel on E134, the major east-west route between Haugesund and Drammen (Oslo). That said they are a bit excited about it costing NOK1.017 billion (£100m), ‘Telemark’s most expensive hole’. Work starts at the end of November. By contrast, the 690m Trifon Tunnel to be built across the Russian border near Kirkenes will cost a trifling NOK270m. Cross-border travellers have increased by 300% in the past five years according to the Barents Observer. The Russians have already upgraded the E105/A138 road to Murmansk via Zapolyarny. The crossing points themselves will be rebuilt next year. The tunnel opens in autumn 2016.

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Mercedes’ cult G-Class off-roader tackles the private Schockl test track near Graz in south east Austria (owned by production-partner Magna Steyr). The G-Class was originally developed at Schockl in the mid-1970s. Okay it’s an advert – Schockl is only open to paying customers on Mercedes’ Off-Road Driving Experiences – but at 5.6km, with 54% lateral tilts, 60% gradients and views over Graz into Hungary, it’s one for the list, even at €1095 for three days.

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The torturous process of selecting Brussels’ new Transport Commissioner is not over yet.

Also, the new A35 Milan-Brescia is apparently yet to prove popular with drivers. Croatian roads referendum threatens Peljesac Bridge and Adriatic-Ionian motorway. Madrid’s eighteenth ever car is up for auction. A new ferry starts between Romania, Georgia and Ukraine. A shocking video demonstrates the dangers of swooping.

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EVERYBODY LOVED MAROS.

Firm favourite replaced by new-age kook/focused entrepreneur.

One to watch: Maros Sefcovic, former EU Commissioner-designate for Transport.

It was indeed too good to be true. Absolutely too good.

Maros Sefcovic, commissioner-designate for Transport (and Space), wowed MEPs at his confirmation hearing earlier this month.

It wasn’t just his confident manner or clear knowledge of the subject matter that convinced parliamentarians but also his sensitivity to the big issues.

He correctly identified ‘Social Dumping’ – workers from one country undercutting those in another – as the biggest issue in road transport.

While he precisely echoed the Commission’s dogged line on the German foreigner vignette – tolls are the best way to maintain roads; still waiting to see the final detail – he did say the EU principle of non-discrimination was ‘dear to me’.

Best of all, he said his first task, unlike his predecessor, would be to set out the Commission’s transport priorities in a new White Paper.

When it subsequently became clear that a reshuffle of the commissioner candidates was inevitable – when MEPs voted 112:13 against nominating the former Slovenian PM as Vice President for Energy Union- the transport committee wrote to incoming-president Jean-Claude Juncker to ask that Sefcovic not be moved.

Sefcovic was moved, promoted in fact, to Vice President (for Energy Union). His replacement, Violeta Bulc, confirmed last night, is a business consultant, only brought into the Slovenian government last month.

Described by Open Europe as ‘quite a colourful personality’, Bulc holds certificates in shamanism and fire-walking and believes strongly in ‘synthropy’ (the creative power of nature).

What that has to do with transport we’ll see on Monday when it’s her turn to be grilled by MEPs.

Update: despite the new-age credentials, Brussels seems to be warming to Violeta Bulc. New Europe journalist Andy Carling (@quarsan) tweeted Friday, ‘Will do well, she’s been impressing people. Hard worker, quick learner, focussed.’ Meanwhile, Bulc herself (@Violeta) retweeted a profile containing the quote ‘Your hearing will be the most watched in a history. MEPs will hate it so much they’ll love it.’ Read the official brief here.

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Delivered new in April 1903 to Ricardo Soriano (y Scholtz von Hermensdorff), the Marques of Ivanrey – the man who discovered Marbella and gave his name to the main road running through town – this Panhard et Levassor Model KB Four-Cylinder Side-Entrance Phaeton is the star of Bonham’s ‘London to Brighton’ on 31 October. Soriano was a classic playboy aristocrat with interests in cars, bikes and planes. He also introduced Charlie Chaplin to bullfighting. When he died in 1973 aged 90 he was almost penniless but the car – the eighteenth ever registered in Madrid, hence the number plate – was still in his possession.

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The brand new A35 motorway between Milan and Brescia is so under-used it’s apparently good for a game of football. The operating company BreBeMi insists this video was made before the road opened in July and that it ‘remains focused on the start-up phase of the operation’. The players say the two cars passing on the other carriageway prove the film was made since. A35 is an alternative to the A4 via Bergamo. It cuts the distance by a third but the tolls are 50% greater:

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roundup: CROATIA. Campaigners against the motorway privatisation have collected 160,000 signatures in four days. Around 450,000 would force a national referendum. Selling the network would help pay down the massive debts of the national roads operator HAC – and reportedly ensure pensions and salaries for staff – but also release funds for investment in both the Peljesac Bridge project, and the Croatian section of the proposed Adriatic-Ionian motorway. See our Hybrid Drive: mountains and motorway, Trieste-Split. BLACK SEA. A new weekly ferry service between Romania, Gerogia and Ukraine starts today. Operated by UkrFerry.com, from Odessa, using Greifswald, with space for 85 trucks and 150 passengers, the service calls at Constanta, Batumi and Illichivsk in turn. This is in addition to the company’s existing services to Varna, Derince and Haydarpasa.

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The driver survived, though seriously injured. This video, which surfaced this week, shows a driver on the E40 coastbound from Brussels ‘swooping’, or cutting it at the last second, to take the Aalter exit. As if the initial impact isn’t bad enough, the truck behind has no choice but to plough through the wreckage. Required watching:

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Winter starts officially today, in places. Winter tyres or snow chains are needed in northern Italy while the first mountain pass has closed. 

Also, as road deaths rise again, a plan is unveiled to cut road tolls in France, and abolish them entirely at weekends. But is it serious? Fuel prices have undergone a major hike in Romania. Traffic keeps rising in Belgium despite a constant number of cars. A £500,000 caravan goes on sale in Birmingham. Porsche and Land Rover both come a cropper.

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WINTER STARTS TODAY

Drivers need winter tyres/snow chains in northern Italy. Albula Pass is closed.

Switzerland’s Albula Pass is the first mountain road to close for the winter.

Winter officially kicks off today in parts of the Continent.

Drivers in the Aosta Valley in northwest Italy, between Turin and Geneva, must have winter tyres from 15 October, or carry snow chains, in case of snow.

This includes the A5 Autostrada south of the Mont Blanc Tunnel.

In other mountainous part of Italy winter normally starts on 1 November (or from 15 November in the rest of the country) but already winter tyres/snow chains are needed in the Agordina Valley – on the SP347 Passo Cereda and Passo Duran – in the Dolomites.

See the CCIS website for exactly when and where winter tyres/chains are needed in Italy.

Winter rules kick in on 1 November in Austria, 15 November in Slovenia and 1 December in Sweden and Finland. Drivers need winter tyres in Germany at any time of the year with snow and ice on the road. Catch up on winter tyre rules around Europe here.

Meanwhile, in case of ‘wintry conditions’ in Luxembourg, drivers should have had winter tyres fitted from 1 October (though this is disputed).

Police are out and about this week carrying out random headlights and tyre checks. Since there is no snow or ice on the ground nobody will be fined for not having winter or all-weather tyres (either way marked with any combination of M and S). Officers will be concentrating on tread-depth: the legal minimum is 1.6mm but 4mm is recommended in winter.

While snow has been seen this week on France’s 9087ft Col de l’Iseran mountain pass – many super-high passes have snow all year – according to the ADAC Alpine Road website, the only pass closed so far is Switzerland’s Albula Pass, between Davos and St Moritz.

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£500,000 for a caravan, are you mad? German manufacturer Knauss Tabbert thinks the cost of its Caravisio ‘caravan of the future’ concept – unveiled at this week’s Motorhome and Caravan Show in Birmingham – is entirely reasonable considering it features finger-print activated biometric security technology, an integral outdoor terrace, wine cellar and king-size double bed within its aerodynamically-optimised 9×2.5m fibreglass shell. The reactive-glass sliding rear doors double as a cinema screen. Something similar could be on sale in two years says the company but if you offered them half a mil now you could drive it away today (or after the show ends on Sunday).

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roundup: FRANCE. Road tolls cut by 10% – and made free at weekends – plus a 10% levy on the profits of motorway operators have been proposed today by Ecology Minister Segolene Royal (former partner of President Francois Hollande) says The Connexion. It follows the ‘indefinite suspension’ of the truck toll Ecotaxe system last week – and a critical report on road profits last month – as the govt looks to claw back lost revenue, originally intended to improve public transport. It’s not clear if it is a serious plan, or a threat to bring road operators to the table – their contracts lock in price rises until at least the middle of the next decade. Meanwhile, road deaths edged up 1.3% in September after several months of falls (following the sharply upward trend earlier this year). Over the past twelve months the numbers killed are up 0.5%, mainly pedestrians and cyclists – motorist numbers are down 2%. ROMANIA. Fuel prices have risen by around ten percent this year, faster than anywhere else in Europe says Romania-Insider.com. The rise is mainly down to a 7c/l infrastructure levy introduced in April. According to FPE, unleaded95 currently sells for €1.353/l and diesel €1.374, 28th and 16th most expensive on the Continent. Diesel is considerably more expensive than near neighbours, including Austria. Transport companies however get a 4c/l rebate following widespread protests. BELGIUM. The average length of traffic jams each day increased to 168km last year from 143km in 2012 and 122km in 2011, even as the number of cars on the road has stayed static reports Flandersnews.be. It’s down to a growing economy, more road works, a snowy winter and a rising spate of ‘nuisance incidents’ like accidents and trucks shedding loads says the ‘Transport Indicators’ report from the Flemish Traffic Office. Brussels is overall the busiest, especially the stretch of R0 ring road in the west, north of the E40 Ostend. The most congested road in the country however is the south eastern part of the Antwerp R1 ring road. The Guardian published an article in August, ‘Five reasons Belgium has the worst traffic in Europe’.

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The Porsche Macan fails the Swedish ‘Elk Test’:

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Loving Land Rover owners that we are, it’s painful to note that ‘The Great McGov’ might have come a cropper in this sculpture collaboration with Italian artist Nino Mustica:

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Brittany Ferries drops plans to run ships on ultra-clean natural gas, and cancels fancy new ferry.

Also, amazing stats emerge as the UK’s major caravan show kicks off in Birmingham. Fake traffic cop warning Luxembourg. No change fuel taxes Ireland. P&O’s Pride of Canterbury still out of service. Cost of congestion set to soar.

Calais Migrant Crisis: Calais ‘Day of Action’ called off for lunch.

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BRITTANY FERRES DITCHES GREEN FUEL PLANS

Fuel bill and fares bound to rise.

Cancelled: Brittany Ferries’ innovative gas-powered ship ‘Pegasis’.

Western Channel operator Brittany Ferries has cancelled plans to run its ships on ultra-low emission Liquified Natural Gas (LNG).

It means innovative new build Pegasis will now not go ahead.

‘It’s a decision I take with much regret and disappointment,’ says Brittany Ferries chairman Jean-Marc Roue.

From 1 January 2015, all ships in the EU must use low-sulphur fuel. Operators have the choice to switch to (more expensive) diesel fuel, fit ‘scrubbers’ to clean emissions from existing bunker fuel, or opt for environmentally-friendly gas power.

In addition to Pegasis, due to launch in 2016 to replace Bretagne, the company was intending to re-fit Pont Aven, Armorique and Mont Saint-Michel with LNG engines, and fit scrubbers to the rest of the fleet, for a total cost of €400m.

Brittany Ferries had reportedly been lobbying for an exemption to the new fuel regulations based on its medium-term plan to far surpass the requirements. With an exemption now unlikely to be granted the plan is no longer viable. The company will now fit scrubbers to all ships.

Poole-Cherbourg ship Barfleur will be out of action for two months in the Spring during the upgrade.

Meanwhile, exactly like Stena Line, DFDS says freight rates will increase by 15% from 1 January due to the new low-sulphur rules.

Ferry operators are yet to announce whether and by how much regular passengers fares will rise from January though increases seem inevitable. P&O says diesel will add £30m to its annual fuel bill. Eurotunnel said previously its fares would also rise to maintain its ‘premium pricing structure’.

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The Honda Racing BTCC team caravan is the star attraction at this week’s NEC Caravan Show in Birmingham, from today until Sunday, see motorhomeandcaravanshow.co.uk. According to BBC Breakfast business correspondent Steph McGovern, the British caravan industry is worth £6bn to the economy each year and employs 100,000 people…

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roundup: LUXEMBOURG. A driver in the east of the country was stopped by an apparently fake traffic officer (bearded, with a local accent) who demanded a €100 on the spot fine says wort.lu. IRELAND. Fuel taxes were not increased in the budget revealed today. Unleaded 95 currently sells for €1.499/l and diesel for €1.439 on average, the 15th and 12th most expensive in Europe according to FPE. CROSSING THE CHANNEL. The engine-room fire aboard P&O’s Pride of Canterbury as it arrived in Calais last month caused more extensive damage than thought. The vessel is still out of service, under repair at the Arno shipyard in Dunkerque. No-one was injured in the incident. The service has been cut down to 40 trips each day, from the usual 46, until the ship returns. TRAFFIC. The cumulative cost of congestion in the UK, France and German will reach $1.6 trillion over the next fifteen years says a report from INRIX, double current levels. They key factors behind the rise are urbanisation and increasing GDP. The traffic-info provider – of which Porsche now owns part – says innovative technology like ‘multi-modal routing and real-time traffic in cars and on mobile devices should be adopted more widely’.

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Aussie roadtripper @DestinationEU drives from Annecy to Dresden via Colmar and Strasbourg in her Fiat 500, part two of a trip from Sardinia to Berlin. See more at Rear View Mirror:

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Thrilling, intoxicating noise from the 1995 Gerhard Berger/Jean Alesi Ferrari 412T2 driven by Ferrari test driver Marc Gene at Monza:

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The impressive Louvre Lens museum in northern France is popular with every nationality apart from the British, despite being an easy drive from the Channel ports.

Also, the ‘Ferry to Norway’ campaign group launches this week. Dover Port now free to invest. German driver ‘let off’ in France. Man survives fall off Oscar Wilde. DUI spot-check measly haul in Luxembourg. Derek Bell, Bentley Boy in Belgium. Hypnotic racers on Tour Auto.

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LOUVRE LENS, NOT A HIT WITH BRITS

One million visitors but few from the UK.

Photo @DriveEurope.

Despite being less than an hour’s drive from the main Channel Ports, the Louvre Lens museum near Arras in northern France struggles to attract British visitors.

The first – and so far only – outpost of the famous Paris Louvre, home to the Mona Lisa, clocked up an impressive one million visitors within a year of its of opening in December 2012.

However, Daniel Percheron, the president of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region told The Independent yesterday, ‘To our great surprise and disappointment, only a few are from the UK. The British disembark in Calais, they drive down the motorway only a few kilometres away but they don’t stop.’

The series of five low-rise minimalist glass pavilions, in a landscaped park, with a Michelin-starred restaurant nearby, has a diverse permanent display of art, sculpture and artifacts through the ages and from around the world.

It also includes masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Raphael, Rubens and Rembrandt and finishes with Delacroix’s 1830 Liberty Leading the People, a symbol of the French Revolution.

A new temporary exhibition on ‘The Pharaoh’s Animals’ starts in December.

The museum is just off the A21 to the west of Lens, a former mining town. At 65 miles direct from Calais on the A26 (€7.20 toll each way) and 59 miles from Dunkirk on the (free) A25, visitors arrive within an hour of leaving the ferry.

The area was previously best known for the Battle of Vimy Ridge. A 250 acre memorial, opened by King Edward VIII before his abdication in 1936, is five miles further south.

General admission to Louvre Lens is free until the end of 2014, or €9 to temporary exhibitions. It opens every day except Tuesday, 10-18:00. See here for more information.

Daytrip special offers from the Channel operators include £25 with P&O (including six free bottles of wine), £38 with DFDS (Calais or Dunkirk), £40 Eurotunnel or £48 with MyFerryLink.

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Sports car legend Derek Bell drives Bentley’s 1930 Le Mans winning ‘Old Number One’ at Belgium’s premier classic car event the Zoute Grand Prix at Knokke-Zoute near Zeebrugge on Saturday. See zoutegrandprix.be

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roundup: NORWAY. A new group pressing for the return of a UK-Norway ferry link launches on Thursday. Since DFDS pulled out of the Harwich-Esbjerg ferry last month there are no ferries between the UK and Scandinavia. Brainchild of Trevor Roberts, the website goes live at www.ferrytonorway.com. That’s as much as we know so far. Catch up with the latest regarding Norwegian Seaways and the proposed replacement Harwich-Esbjerg service from Regina Lines. CROSSING THE CHANNEL. A man who fell from the deck of Irish Ferries’ massive Oscar Wilde in Rosslare Harbour last night was rescued – almost miraculously considering the weather conditions – by the Isle of Innisfree, another of the operator’s ships. He is recovering in hospital says Belfast Telegraph. FRANCE. A German driver caught at 237kmh on the A7 near Valence yesterday was fined €750 and his licence was confiscated. He will also receive a court summons. As The Connexion confirms, drivers found to be more than 50kmh over the speed limit normally face a €1500 fine. French magistrates can/do increase penalties. LUXEMBOURG. An unannounced, country-wide drink driving spot check blitz over the weekend saw just eight out of five hundred drivers over the limit, a strike rate of 1.6%, says wort.lu. DOVER. A bid for greater financial freedom has been approved by the government. From 5 November, the Port will be able to borrow money on the capital markets to fund investment. As a ‘statutory corporation’, formed by Royal Charter in 1606, the activities of Dover Harbour Board are strictly regulated. The news comes a couple of weeks after the Port announced a new £120m rejuvenation programme. Chief exec Tim Waggott called the new powers the start of a ‘golden age’ for Dover.

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Hypnotic footage of racers heeling, toeing and double declutching around two hairpins near Valence on this year’s Tour Auto Optic 2000:

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Last updated 18:15BST.

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TODAY: off-road driving course at the Land Rover Experience Centre, Luton Hoo. More later.

On-going major flooding France and Italy, see below.

Weekend road closures: long diversion coastbound A2 at Canterbury, recommended M20 to Dover. Fourvieres Tunnel central Lyon, A6/A7, closed until 05:00 Monday, no major individual delays but persistent, considerable local congestion.

Calais Migrant Crisis: Calais ‘Day of Action’ Monday 13 October.

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CHANNEL DELAYS: no delays currently.

WEATHER ALERT: RED alert floods/heavy rain France (see more + more). Amber alert heavy rain Italy (see more + more), Switzerland, Portugal.

WEATHER: unsettled West. Chilly Spain. Fine + dry Central, East.

GOTTHARD TUNNEL: northbound queue down to 2km, delay 20mins.

MONT BLANC TUNNEL: ‘traffic is fluent’.

MAJOR TRAFFIC DELAYS: A12 westbound into Genoa, road works delay 45mins.

Earlier: A12 westbound at Utrecht, road works delay down to 30mins. A96 southbound to Bregenz, road works at Leutkirch delay down to 30mins.

See Travel/Traffic/Weather for more.

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