There’s an episode of the PBS TV show, Rick Steves’ Europe, called “Burgundy, Profoundly French” where the host is gliding down a peaceful canal, sipping red wine, while telling us about how calm and serene life onboard can be. We now live within a few minutes’ walk of the Canal-du-Midi and during the season we typically see small house boats navigating the narrow waterway that, in conjunction with the Garonne River, connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea. If a family has rented the boat, usually one of the parents is at the helm and in our minds, at least, wondering when their next challenge will arrive: the lock that they themselves might have to operate to get to the next higher or lower level of the canal, a task that has always dissuaded us from renting a similar boat. In that PBS video Rick Steves never has a worry and now we know why: he was on a hotel canal barge much like the one we enjoyed for a week.

Last time, I talked about the historical highlights we discovered along the Oise Canal, northwest of Paris, and today I wanted to address the cruise and what you might expect if you choose to explore a bit of this country on the water. Now that we live in France and no longer rush to see as much as possible in a two-week vacation before returning to the US, we’ve fully embraced “slow travel” and canal cruising certainly fits in. At 4 km/hr (2.5 mi/hr), you have plenty of time to relax and take in the views that pass by serenely, especially with a crew to steer, operate locks, and bring you food and drink.

Although we’ve never been on a river cruise, a video comparing those to traveling by canal convinced us that the latter option was definitely the one for us. The commentator listed 5 major differences between the two and once we had heard this one specific argument, we were ready to sign up:

1. Off the beaten path—Because we’ve been vacationing in France for at least 30 years we’ve had the opportunity to visit most of the major sites and many of the country’s 3000 train stations. There’s much more to see, however, especially deep in the countryside where the train no longer stops. We could rent a car, but if a canal boat will leisurely take us there, we would prefer that to driving.

With the decision to take the cruise thus made, his other points simply reinforced our choice:

2. Slower pace—You might travel only 80 to 112 kilometers (50 to 70 miles) in a week, cruising for just half a day and then docking overnight.
3. Social and intimate—With only 12 passengers onboard (capacity of 22) it was easy to meet everyone and strike up conversations over drinks, dinner, and excursions. That was different from our experiences of sailing on ships with thousands of other passengers in the Caribbean.
4. Choice (or lack of)—Only a handful of companies operate hotel barges and most of the boats are not big enough to have a gym, a pool, a theater, etc. There was typically only one excursion each day and we all ate the same meals although dishes were never repeated. 
5. Small cabins—These were meant for sleeping and getting dressed rather than a place of retreat. 

For part of the week, our daily routine began with a buffet breakfast followed by a guided excursion into the town where we had docked the night before. Back on board by mid-day, lunch was served as we got underway followed later in the day with an apéro, dinner, and the chance to wander on our own around the next port of call before bedtime. On some days, we sailed right after breakfast, docked around lunchtime, and then had an afternoon excursion. See the gallery below for a daily schedule example.

The age range of our fellow passengers was 25-60, six native English speakers and four French-Canadians. The crew with whom we closely interacted and the tour guides were fully fluent in French and English. All meals were freshly prepared onboard and served with unlimited house wines, beer, well drinks, sodas, various coffees and teas. The bar was open all day for those same included beverages at no extra charge plus a list of “top shelf” drinks for purchase. The suggested tip amount was 5€ to 10€ per day per passenger, deposited in one envelope at reception that was then shared equally among the crew members. This trip ended up being a great way for us to discover a part of the country that we might have overlooked and now we are eager to find other cruises to take.

Note: Our cruise was unusual in that the other 6 native English speakers were journalists who were with us for only about half the journey, long enough to gather the details to write about their experiences onboard. It then became a French-language-only boat although the crew and tour guides all offered help in English if we didn’t understand something that they had said in French. With only 4 other passengers by the end of the week, we were spoiled.

Photo notes: The featured photo today across the top of the post is our boat “Raymonde” waiting for us to board and in the first paragraph is its bell on the bow. In the gallery below you will find scenes around the boat plus the list of included drinks and the ones available at extra cost. Suzie, the boat’s purser prepared a recap of the cruise, including a description of each lunch and dinner and I’ll put a link here: RECAP pdf