Two adventurous couples are seeking advice and tips about renting a barge and touring the French canals.




Any info such as websites, itinerary, wining, dining, and rates would be much apreciated.

Hi sidley,

Are you planning bare boat or crewed?

Sidley, I know you are looking for the easy way out here, but there have been a number of posts and answers on this topic over the past year or so. Perhaps those people who responded will happen by here and respond to you, or you could enter "barges" and click France in the search function, and I guarantee you, you will get a whole lot of information very quickly.

Is it a do it yourself or a barge trip. I recommend the latter.

Try Crown Blue charters.

Sorry, meant Crown Blue Lines!

First these people want to barge in on people in France...

Then ira wants to know if they want to do it "bare"...

REALLY! Always thought of this as a family friendly forum!

[Sorry, getting late, and some titles just hit in a humorous way. )

Sidley, I "read" your post to mean you rent the barge and you crew the barge. My friends and I spent a week in the Cote d'or, the Soane and then the Canel de (du?) Central...and it was delightful. Started out at St. Jean de Losne (close to Dijon) and off we went! We chose Crowne Blue Lines as it had the best recommendations from others, rates and, well, modern "barges"... we rented two Classiques.

Here are some very good barge sites:
http://www.fcwl.com/home_flash.html
http://www.bargeaif.com/index.htm
http://www.francecruises.com/Meanderer.htm
http://www.connoisseurafloat.com/ind...h0bWw6OnVrOjo=
http://frenchwaterways.info/about.html
http://www.bargelady.com/

OK, I'm busted! Yes I am trying to do this the easy way......
Yes to the questions--bare, only the barge rental. Self crew, because we enjoy our privacy.

Appreciate your input.

The one major suggestion I'd make, based on a number of comments from those who did it.
Make sure you get a boat where the driver can be outside, or the top slides back to open up the pilot's position. Barging is slow going, and I can't imagine anything worse than the driver being stuck below all day "driving" while the other person or persons are outside enjoying the views and air.

LOL...I agree with Patrick except for 1 thing...about the barges we had hired, we were SOOOOOOOOOO happy because there were 2 ...what? Steering wheels?? (I confess...I'm not much of a boater and don't know terms, fore, aft, port and stern, I learned. I was able enought that I could stand there and hold a rope to lock the boat to the side of the locks... Because, it DOES rain in France...and when it rained, our captain was darned glad we could motor on and he could sit inside, as well as outside.