If you told someone to name a place in France, my guess is that the first answer from most people would be “Paris”. After all, this capital consistently appears at or near the top of the lists of most-visited cities. Another French location that’s likely to come to mind might be Provence. You could suddenly be transported to warm and sunny fields of lavender, vineyards, hilltop villages, outdoor markets full of fresh fruits and vegetables, delicious, leisurely meals at quaint sidewalk cafés. Thanks to the “Year in Provence” trilogy by Peter Mayle, followed by the TV series based on the first book, many of us were drawn to this beautiful area of France. Therefore, when we saw an advertisement for a canal cruise, “Provence—from Sète to Arles” we knew that was for us.

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.

For anyone with a good knowledge of French geography, you might know immediately where the Oise Valley is located. To give you some hints, a few of the significant towns in the area are Compiègne, Pont-Sainte-Maxence, and Saint-Leu-d’Esserent. Still no idea? Me neither, at least until I got out a map to see that it’s northwest of Paris and that, in fact, the Oise River originates in Belgium and flows south to join the Seine about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the capital. The reason this became important was because Bill had been reading about cruising the canals of France on a péniche (in this case, a hotel barge) and one company was offering a 50% discount on some departures on this route. It was time to investigate what this valley had to offer.