 Durant
and Cheryl Imboden'sEurope for Cruisers europeforcruisers.com |
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Le Renaissance Activities and ExcursionsFrom: A Barge Cruise in France
ABOVE: The royal château of Fontainebleau..INSET BELOW: An Australian passenger goes biking, his wife steers the barge under the pilot's supervision, our chef demonstrates his culinary technique, and we visit the Château de la Bussiere and Montargis. Cruising activities
When you're feeling adventurous, you can try your hand at the wheel, with the pilot standing by to save you from embarrassment or disaster. (Steering the barge is less intimidating than you might think, as long as you aren't trying to parallel park. It takes a while for the rudder to respond to a turn of the wheel, and you'll be setting up for the next curve before you've gone through the one just ahead.)
We were lucky with weather on our cruise, but when it's rainy or chilly, you can retreat to the saloon for a card game, board game, or book. Or you can borrow a DVD from the movie library and watch it on the flat-screen TV in your suite. (Satellite TV should be another option by the time you read this; the system wasn't quite ready for prime time during our cruise.) Tours and shore excursions
Shore excursions are part of the barging experience. In some cases, you can just walk ashore and wander through a village with the captain or on your own; on other occasions, you'll be shuttled to a town or tourist attraction in the nine-passenger minibus that meets the barge at various locks and mooring sites.
The captain also drove us to the town of Briare, where a 662-meter aqueduct--designed by Gustave Eiffel--carries boats and canal barges high above the River Loire. Hot-air balloon ridesPassengers can book optional hot-air balloon rides, which offer a bird's-eye view of the Burgundian and Loire landscape. (Nobody on our cruise went ballooning; everyone seemed satisfied with barging and the occasional morning or afternoon shore excursion.) Next page: Cruises, private charters
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You
won't find casinos, art auctions, shuffleboard tournaments, and other
traditional cruise activities on a canal barge. The emphasis is on relaxation
and do-it-yourself pleasures, such as soaking in the hot tub, hopping on or off
the barge at locks, and bicycling or walking along the towpath. You needn't
worry about keeping up with the barge, which is likely to move more slowly than
you do--especially when you factor in the time required to go through locks.
If
you're interested in cooking--or if you'd simply like to watch a professional at
work--you can visit the chef in the well-equipped kitchen. Both of us were
impressed by Sylvain's ability to multitask while answering questions about his
culinary domain. (He went from trimming a genoise to slicing vegetables to
preparing filet mignon de porc with an athlete's economy of movement.)
On
our cruise, touring highlights included the town of Montargis ("the Venice of
the Gatinais"), the family-owned Château de la
Bussière (which we toured with the contessa's young English-speaking
grandchildren), the fortified hilltop village of Château-Landon (where we rode
in a horse carriage and had lunch in a local restaurant), the royal palace of
Fontainebleau (where Napoleon abdicated and went into exile), and
Moret-sur-Loing (a busy, prosperous walled town on the Seine where we spent our
final night on board). 