France Canal Boat C-Brat gathering

[Rick from Maine]

It's Rich's fault! He started it. He mentioned that he'd done a French Canal boat trip. Then Bill wondered if any others would be interested in doing a C-Brat cruise on the France Canals.

El & Bill and Rick & Carol from Maine are interested in doing a France Canal tour next spring. Are any other C-Brats interested? The rental boats can luxuriously accomodate 2 or more couples. There are many different canal cruise locations in France with weeklong cruises. The different locations offer different cruising times, i.e. how many hours per day on average that will be traveled, and different scenery.

If other C-Brats are interested we can go together and share rental boats. Once we see who's interested, we can figure out which area we'd go to. ( Maybe some C-Brat out there knows which canals are most scenic or offer the most interesting sites)

Rick from Maine

[colvosview]

Usually you hear nothing but glowing reports about these cruises, so I'm going to throw in a small wet blanket based on a trip my wife and I did in 2002. Actually this probably won't be an issue with more people on board, but with only the two of us on a small boat, the frequent locks were a real source of stress. It's not unusual to go through a dozen sets of locks in a day, and we never figured out a good system for going upstream. Sometimes we'd look for a place to drop the wife on shore before we got to the lock, so she could be there as I scrambled from the steering station to the deck to toss a line up to her. This could be really squirrelly with some of the strong currents we encountered. Or maybe we'd decide to both stay on board to try and lasso the overhead bollards once we were in the lock. Or, best case, maybe the lock keeper or someone from another boat would offer to catch a line for us, bless their hearts! At any rate, it was all so stressful that when we got to a nice spot after a couple of days, my wife refused to go any further. At least then we could relax and bicycle to villages and wineries.
Locking downstream was a piece of cake, so we've since advised couples to pay the extra fee to do a one-way trip downstream. Also, the bigger boats allow you to jump from the cabin roof to the shore when you're in an empty lock, which is a big help. Our roof wasn't designed to support a person and had keep off stickers on it, but I used it as a launch pad a couple of times when all else failed. Just forget going up those ladders that the rental brochures talk about. They were so slimy that trying to climb up one was an invitation to falling between the boat and the wall of the lock. I never saw anyone use one.

[ffheap]

Hi Folks,

At this time, we would love to make it. Depends upon a lot of pending things happening to us the way we want them to. Great idea.

By the way, MESSING ABOUT IN BOATS, May 1st issue has an article about Canal Cruising in the Heart of France. Just got it.

If you are serious, I have a guy in the travel business who could put this together. He boats with me.

Fred Heap

[fiddlersgreen6]

Count us in, any time is good just remember, the sooner the better, we are not getting any younger. We should go while "all the women are still strong and the men are still good looking." Best to figure at least a two week time period, with about 7-8 days on the canal. See www.franceafloat.com


Rich

[rogerbum]

I could potentially be interested in this. The boat rental site that was mentioned on the other thread specifically talks about 108km lock-free round trip. That might be easier for some.

I'd kind of like a trip that was something like - (1/2-1 day boating - 2 days in a cool place to visit, explore, drink wine and eat) - repeat many times for about 10-14 days total.

[jimandlaurie]

I saw in BoatUS Magazine an ad for Crown Blue Line, a Canal Boat outfit too. Newer boats it looked like not like the
" classic" looking ones. Interesting , kinda like those Norman Boats in England.

[fiddlersgreen6]

Hello All--- for those who are interested, the two following sites give a real good overview about canal cruising in France on the Canal du Nivernais, and about what to expect and what not to expect.

http://the-hamiltons.tripod.com/France1/

http://home.zonnet.nl/mouringh.Marga/Nivernais_eng.htm

Enjoy- Rich

[fiddlersgreen6]

Roger-- Yes, you have the right formula for the canals, sounds good to me and maybe even a stop at a few B&B's along the way. Rick how does that sound to Carol and you? Who is going to start the sign up sheet?

Rich

[El and Bill]

Rick --
Are you THE MAN? Poke through the data, pick a trip, see if folks like it, get some dates, costs (maybe that boating travel agent friend of Fred's) and start a signup -- eh?? We're no help since we are off site for a month or so as we trundle up the BC coast, but we're sure interested in going.

[Rick from Maine]

Bonjour Ami, ( I'm practicing)

Yes, I'll start finding options and post them on this site to get preferences. It's good to see so many interested C-Brats and so much info available on the web. Lets first figure out a region/Canal and a time frame and then some boats. I'll start querying those who've done it before to find any No-Gos. I'd appreciate any first hand knowledge from everyone.

Rick from Maine

[thataway]

We have only done the "Fixed mast" routes, since out mast was 64 feet high, it had a number of limits, in Belgium and Holland. It was easily done with a 62 foot boat my wife and two pre teen children (Our own boat). A friend has their own 50 foot Canal boat and have done nearly all of the Canals of France. Yes, there is some work, but they keep going back and are in their late 70's.

[Rick from Maine]

I haven’t fallen asleep. I’ve been doing my homework. The internet has some great sites on France Canal Cruising. With over 6,000 miles of river/canal cruising in at least 5 different geographic regions to choose from, it’s Mind Boggling.

I’ve taken books out from the local library, and ordered one from Amazon to get more info.

Based on David Salge’s report, I’ve been focusing on One-Way trips with the minimum number of locks. I’ve found some that are 100 – 200 km long with less than 30 locks.

In a few weeks I’ll provide a list of options.

In the meantime, I’d appreciate getting specific information from anyone who has done a France Canal trip ( either on the site or thru e-mail). Types of info I’m interested in are:
Which Canal, Which Boat Company, Type/size of boat? Sites & Hi-lites seen? Weather/date? Other info that might influence decisions.

Rick from Maine

[fiddlersgreen6]

Hello all-- Mid May, June, or Sept, to mid Oct. are probably the best times to be on the canals, less traffic, and these are USUALLY the months of the best weather, it can get very warm in July and Aug. especially on steel barges and these barges don't really get a whole lot of air circulation, being below the level of the surrounding landscape. The furthur you get away from these months the more days of rain or unplesant weather you can expect. Also stay away from the cheapest weekly rates.

France has several climatic zones within the country itself, Brittany is usually the wetest, the Mediterranean is usually the driest.

Paris, is always very crowded the first two weeks of Oct. each year with the annual Auto Show. Just something to think about-- Rich

[fiddlersgreen6]

Hello All----For those who are interested, the Fiberglass canal boats(Penichettes) that look like a cross between a C-Dory and a Fisher can be found at www.locaboat.com

There is also a good article with lots of pictures concerning a Penichette cruise on the Canal du Midi. -------Rich