Barging in Burgundy...a long trip report
Nov 10th, 2005, 10:57 AM
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 26
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Barging in Burgundy...a long trip report
My husband I just returned from our first Burgundy canal barge adventure. It was definitely an adventure and lots of fun! We also chose Crown Blue Line and started out from their base, St. Jean de Losne. Some items you need to purchase at the local Casino (closed for lunch between noon-two) before departing is dish/body soap, paper towels, toilet paper, good quality leather gloves are a must (manning the locks) and a lighter for stove...and, a hat would be very important, too.
Day One: Our first day was an intense day. The metro in Paris broke down and we had to locate an alternate route to Gare de Lyon; catching the TGV but not knowing for sure we were doing it right; finding the transfer train to Dijon-->St. Jean de Losne; finding a taxi to Crown Blue Base; getting a very cursory orientation to the boat--how to drive--how to operate the systems--rules on the canal--how to dock is difficult and the boat DOES NOT drive like a bus/car...it is quite counter-intuitive as to which way to turn the wheel and which direction to apply power. Very confusing for my husband. Then we end up departing St. Jean de Losne late and hit our first lock as night falls. We were behind one of the hotel barges and had to wait to enter the lock. It was hard for my husband to hold position without headway...hard to know how to hold position in the lock. We're scrambling around trying to tie off to the pier without falling in, getting hurt or hanging the boat in the air. The lock is HUGE and yet we drop 8'to 10'in elevation within minutes...then it's dark when we reach port and my husband dances the boat in a circle trying to get close enough to the dock to tie off. Very hard. Our boat is approximately 30'long x 12'. Our bedroom floor space is almost as big as our Paris hotel room (Hotel de Nevers). We dock in Seurre overnight.
Day two: Seurre is lovely...a very picturesque town with interesting shops centrally located. A short bike ride into town from our anchorage. There is a lovely building around every corner right out of a picture book. We depart Seurre at about 1:30pm and arrive in Verdun Sur Le Doubs in two hours. Verdun has a beautiful mooring with swans and ducks. This town has been here since the Romans founded it in the first century AD. Real cobblestones from port to square. Lovely. We have a wonderful dinner at Les Trois Maures of terrine du canard with fig sauce, gel and pickles. Pochouse Verdemoise (sp?), four different fresh water fish with croutons in very heavy garlic butter, white wine sauce. Mushrooms with cream sauce in a light puff pastry. Very good and rich. We were supposed to get a fromage course next, but we are already so full, we pass directly to dessert, chocolate cake with ice cream, whipped cream, cream sauce, strawberry sauce and lychees. The best meal of our French trip thus far. Outstanding. We get a good 8 hours of sleep and we're ready for the next day.
Day 3: We tie up at Chalon Sur Saone 2:45 after departing Verdun Sur Le Doubs. My husband managed to parallel park and tie up after hitting the dock perpendicularly only once. We visit Musee Nicephore Niepce. Lots of old cameras. But, there was also a large exhibit of photos by Rosalind Solomon, American photographs between 1974-2001. Pics mostly from New Orleans, rural Alabama and New York City. We haven't seen much of Chalon Sur Saone, we both prefer the smaller towns to this larger town. The large hotel barges stop here; there are modern high rises and apartments; traffic; too much hustle and bustle. The marina here has scores of boats compared to 3 or 4 at the small places. We have dinner at an Indian restaurant and it is a very welcome change. Kir (white wine with cassis liqueur) aperitifs and the house rose table wine. Yogurt with cucumber salad, tandoori chicken appetizer; nan bread; lamb curry and lamb with Indian rice entrees. Euros 50. Eating rice and speaking English with the proprietor...priceless!
Day 4: We're up at 6am for breakfast on the boat of coffee, ham, boursin & mild open market cheese, croissants. We want to start early on what the guide book says is a six hour cruise to Chagny. We struggled through the 12 locks and make it to Chagny in five hours. From Chalon Sur Saone, we left the river Saone and traveled on the Canal de Centre which is narrow and heavily travelled. I did not enjoy this leg of the trip and I was already dreading the return. A typical lock is maybe 20' wide x 120' long and can change elevation by as much as 30' ... all within a few minutes. When the valves open, the locks can get quite turbulent ... at least going uphill. And, it's difficult to hold the boat tight to the side of the lock. There was a lot of water moving very quickly. I'm glad we were there on a slow time because navigating around the hotel barges in narrow canals is quite difficult. We cannot open throttle to our full 12 KPH speed either, as our wave would erode the banks. We walk through Chagny. We meet a friendly English-speaking lady at the Office de Tourisme who gave us valuable advice on the local restaurants, Chagny's attractions (eco-tourism), how to get to BEAUNE by rail and restaurants. Greuier a Sel for dinner recommended by the Office de Tourisme. A gorgeous room! Kir apertif, a nice 1/2 bottle of Burgundy, escargot and grilled lamb & rib steak. Early to bed & reading up on Beaune, the capital of Burgundy where we will spend tomorrow. It's the center of the Burgundy wine region, a gastronomic center of the wine world...and founded by the Gauls in 52 B.C. Can't wait.
Day 4: Breakfast on the cheap. Day old croissants, prepackaged Serrano jambon, cheese, yogurt, fruit from the local Casino super market. Also some dark chocolate. All excellent. Our port in Chagny is only 200 meters from Le Gare (train station). Euros 5.80 and 10 minutes gets us to Beaune. All our points of interest are within the old ramparts first built by the Gauls. Cool watch towers and stuff. Medieval. First stop is lunch at Ma Cuisine. The town is incredibly picturesque. For lunch, we decided to rely on the restaurant's recommendation, a terrine of mixed meat and pumpkin soup for the first course; filet de lieu (some type of fish) and roguou de veaux sp?(veal kidney) for our second course; flan and brie cheese for dessert...1/2 bottle of very nice burgundy rouge. All excellent. The kidney had the texture of tough mushrooms with a very slight livery taste. The brie for dessert was a bit strange for our taste, but it was okay once you get into it. Then on to L'Hotel-Dieu, founded in 1443 by a philanthropic nobleman as a hospital for the poor, and active until 1971, it's now a museum. Very interesting with old kitchen; hospital beds; daily care implements like copper hot water bottles and blood-letting tools....and some surgical tools to make you shudder. Good shopping in Beaune. A very nice day-trip to Beaune, I must say. Memorable. Many wine shops as one might expect, almost as many as boucherie and patisserie. Lovely stem ware, decanters & wine paraphernalia.
Day 6: I am already quite anxious about the return trip out of Chagny. It begins to drizzle when we start off, not heavy rain, but audible and non-stop. I'm dreading the return as it won't be fun doing the twelve locks in cold rain. We pull out of dock at 0845 before full light in the drizzle. We are bundled up with three layers of clothes and and gloves, we can see our breath in the air, but it's not uncomfortable. The rain stops shortly and two things work in our favor. Three things. My husband has learned the secret to navigating the locks ...it is slow speed 2) going downstream, the locks are not turbulent...it's draining the bathtub in three minutes rather than filling it in three minutes, 3) NO Traffic. We pass only two barges and have to wait our turn only once. One of the barges we pass was just starting on the Canal de Centre, they were at the second lock and we recognized the look of surprised panic on the older couple's faces. We pack twelve locks in four hours. Piece of cake. We bypass Chalon Sur Saone and on to Verdun Sur Le Doubs in another 2.5 hours. We reward ourselves with more burgundy wine and pastry. We bike through Verdun in late afternoon...pretty town...looking for tonight's restaurants. We find 3 or 4 likely prospects...and find them all closed on Wednesday when we return in the evening. But, Les Trois Maures is open and we have another wonderful dinner there.
Day 6: We awake after a good night's sleep to find the spacious square above our landing port has been transformed. It's market day. We lucked out. A quick trip gets our breakfast fixings of coffee, croissants, fresh goat cheese and one other unidentified mild cheese, Bayonne ham and fruit. An interesting market. It is spread all over town. Fish vendors; clothes; hats; knives; shoes; cheese wagons, rotisserie wagons selling lamb, pork and chickens. It back to La Bateau and on to Seurre....a short 2-hour trip. Only one lock but it is a huge one...they wait until there are five boats in before activating the lock. There's a French guy on the boat before us yelling at his wife on shore who is trying to tie them up. Poor rookies...all stressed out...not like us seasoned barge masters...Haha. In Seurre, we have some wonderful coffee (we have not had a bad cup yet!) and I check out some shops along the charming narrow streets while my husband tends clothes in the French laundromat. We have decided to eat our last meal on the boat. Quick, easy, good and, won't over-stress my husband's Lipitor. We have a quiet dinner aboard on our last evening of chicken, rice spinach casserole, mousse de canard on slices of baguette, another wonderful (and cheap!) burgundy bottle of wine from Beaune as we watch the fishermen, ducks and sunset over a medieval river town. Harbor master comes by to collect E10. This is the only port we've encountered that charged a fee.
Day 7: 0730 start just at the crack of dawn. Two huge locks to maneuver through with no problem, now that we know all the tricks . Back to St. Jean de Losne and return our boat. We meet an American couple returning their boat same time as us. He is from Redondo Beach and owns two boats. My husband is gratified to hear him comment that these boats do not drive like his...they handle opposite to what he expects when in reverse. Ha!
I'm going to end our Burgundy trip report right here. Just a quick note...after the cruise, we train from Dijon to Lausanne and get a sleeper and we awake in Venice. We are struck by the canals and boats...not by how diffeent it all is, but how SIMILAR it is to our last week on the canls of France. I'm sure that we would be more impressed if we hadn't just come from a week of navigating the locks. Listening to the valporetti shifting into reverse and gunning their engines to dock gave us Chagny Lock Flashbacks.
We spent another week and a half after Burgundy in Italy touring Venice, The Chianti Region and ending in Rome. Another report to come much later. I intended the (Burgundy Cruise) report to be short...alas, a long report. Enjoy!
Day One: Our first day was an intense day. The metro in Paris broke down and we had to locate an alternate route to Gare de Lyon; catching the TGV but not knowing for sure we were doing it right; finding the transfer train to Dijon-->St. Jean de Losne; finding a taxi to Crown Blue Base; getting a very cursory orientation to the boat--how to drive--how to operate the systems--rules on the canal--how to dock is difficult and the boat DOES NOT drive like a bus/car...it is quite counter-intuitive as to which way to turn the wheel and which direction to apply power. Very confusing for my husband. Then we end up departing St. Jean de Losne late and hit our first lock as night falls. We were behind one of the hotel barges and had to wait to enter the lock. It was hard for my husband to hold position without headway...hard to know how to hold position in the lock. We're scrambling around trying to tie off to the pier without falling in, getting hurt or hanging the boat in the air. The lock is HUGE and yet we drop 8'to 10'in elevation within minutes...then it's dark when we reach port and my husband dances the boat in a circle trying to get close enough to the dock to tie off. Very hard. Our boat is approximately 30'long x 12'. Our bedroom floor space is almost as big as our Paris hotel room (Hotel de Nevers). We dock in Seurre overnight.
Day two: Seurre is lovely...a very picturesque town with interesting shops centrally located. A short bike ride into town from our anchorage. There is a lovely building around every corner right out of a picture book. We depart Seurre at about 1:30pm and arrive in Verdun Sur Le Doubs in two hours. Verdun has a beautiful mooring with swans and ducks. This town has been here since the Romans founded it in the first century AD. Real cobblestones from port to square. Lovely. We have a wonderful dinner at Les Trois Maures of terrine du canard with fig sauce, gel and pickles. Pochouse Verdemoise (sp?), four different fresh water fish with croutons in very heavy garlic butter, white wine sauce. Mushrooms with cream sauce in a light puff pastry. Very good and rich. We were supposed to get a fromage course next, but we are already so full, we pass directly to dessert, chocolate cake with ice cream, whipped cream, cream sauce, strawberry sauce and lychees. The best meal of our French trip thus far. Outstanding. We get a good 8 hours of sleep and we're ready for the next day.
Day 3: We tie up at Chalon Sur Saone 2:45 after departing Verdun Sur Le Doubs. My husband managed to parallel park and tie up after hitting the dock perpendicularly only once. We visit Musee Nicephore Niepce. Lots of old cameras. But, there was also a large exhibit of photos by Rosalind Solomon, American photographs between 1974-2001. Pics mostly from New Orleans, rural Alabama and New York City. We haven't seen much of Chalon Sur Saone, we both prefer the smaller towns to this larger town. The large hotel barges stop here; there are modern high rises and apartments; traffic; too much hustle and bustle. The marina here has scores of boats compared to 3 or 4 at the small places. We have dinner at an Indian restaurant and it is a very welcome change. Kir (white wine with cassis liqueur) aperitifs and the house rose table wine. Yogurt with cucumber salad, tandoori chicken appetizer; nan bread; lamb curry and lamb with Indian rice entrees. Euros 50. Eating rice and speaking English with the proprietor...priceless!
Day 4: We're up at 6am for breakfast on the boat of coffee, ham, boursin & mild open market cheese, croissants. We want to start early on what the guide book says is a six hour cruise to Chagny. We struggled through the 12 locks and make it to Chagny in five hours. From Chalon Sur Saone, we left the river Saone and traveled on the Canal de Centre which is narrow and heavily travelled. I did not enjoy this leg of the trip and I was already dreading the return. A typical lock is maybe 20' wide x 120' long and can change elevation by as much as 30' ... all within a few minutes. When the valves open, the locks can get quite turbulent ... at least going uphill. And, it's difficult to hold the boat tight to the side of the lock. There was a lot of water moving very quickly. I'm glad we were there on a slow time because navigating around the hotel barges in narrow canals is quite difficult. We cannot open throttle to our full 12 KPH speed either, as our wave would erode the banks. We walk through Chagny. We meet a friendly English-speaking lady at the Office de Tourisme who gave us valuable advice on the local restaurants, Chagny's attractions (eco-tourism), how to get to BEAUNE by rail and restaurants. Greuier a Sel for dinner recommended by the Office de Tourisme. A gorgeous room! Kir apertif, a nice 1/2 bottle of Burgundy, escargot and grilled lamb & rib steak. Early to bed & reading up on Beaune, the capital of Burgundy where we will spend tomorrow. It's the center of the Burgundy wine region, a gastronomic center of the wine world...and founded by the Gauls in 52 B.C. Can't wait.
Day 4: Breakfast on the cheap. Day old croissants, prepackaged Serrano jambon, cheese, yogurt, fruit from the local Casino super market. Also some dark chocolate. All excellent. Our port in Chagny is only 200 meters from Le Gare (train station). Euros 5.80 and 10 minutes gets us to Beaune. All our points of interest are within the old ramparts first built by the Gauls. Cool watch towers and stuff. Medieval. First stop is lunch at Ma Cuisine. The town is incredibly picturesque. For lunch, we decided to rely on the restaurant's recommendation, a terrine of mixed meat and pumpkin soup for the first course; filet de lieu (some type of fish) and roguou de veaux sp?(veal kidney) for our second course; flan and brie cheese for dessert...1/2 bottle of very nice burgundy rouge. All excellent. The kidney had the texture of tough mushrooms with a very slight livery taste. The brie for dessert was a bit strange for our taste, but it was okay once you get into it. Then on to L'Hotel-Dieu, founded in 1443 by a philanthropic nobleman as a hospital for the poor, and active until 1971, it's now a museum. Very interesting with old kitchen; hospital beds; daily care implements like copper hot water bottles and blood-letting tools....and some surgical tools to make you shudder. Good shopping in Beaune. A very nice day-trip to Beaune, I must say. Memorable. Many wine shops as one might expect, almost as many as boucherie and patisserie. Lovely stem ware, decanters & wine paraphernalia.
Day 6: I am already quite anxious about the return trip out of Chagny. It begins to drizzle when we start off, not heavy rain, but audible and non-stop. I'm dreading the return as it won't be fun doing the twelve locks in cold rain. We pull out of dock at 0845 before full light in the drizzle. We are bundled up with three layers of clothes and and gloves, we can see our breath in the air, but it's not uncomfortable. The rain stops shortly and two things work in our favor. Three things. My husband has learned the secret to navigating the locks ...it is slow speed 2) going downstream, the locks are not turbulent...it's draining the bathtub in three minutes rather than filling it in three minutes, 3) NO Traffic. We pass only two barges and have to wait our turn only once. One of the barges we pass was just starting on the Canal de Centre, they were at the second lock and we recognized the look of surprised panic on the older couple's faces. We pack twelve locks in four hours. Piece of cake. We bypass Chalon Sur Saone and on to Verdun Sur Le Doubs in another 2.5 hours. We reward ourselves with more burgundy wine and pastry. We bike through Verdun in late afternoon...pretty town...looking for tonight's restaurants. We find 3 or 4 likely prospects...and find them all closed on Wednesday when we return in the evening. But, Les Trois Maures is open and we have another wonderful dinner there.
Day 6: We awake after a good night's sleep to find the spacious square above our landing port has been transformed. It's market day. We lucked out. A quick trip gets our breakfast fixings of coffee, croissants, fresh goat cheese and one other unidentified mild cheese, Bayonne ham and fruit. An interesting market. It is spread all over town. Fish vendors; clothes; hats; knives; shoes; cheese wagons, rotisserie wagons selling lamb, pork and chickens. It back to La Bateau and on to Seurre....a short 2-hour trip. Only one lock but it is a huge one...they wait until there are five boats in before activating the lock. There's a French guy on the boat before us yelling at his wife on shore who is trying to tie them up. Poor rookies...all stressed out...not like us seasoned barge masters...Haha. In Seurre, we have some wonderful coffee (we have not had a bad cup yet!) and I check out some shops along the charming narrow streets while my husband tends clothes in the French laundromat. We have decided to eat our last meal on the boat. Quick, easy, good and, won't over-stress my husband's Lipitor. We have a quiet dinner aboard on our last evening of chicken, rice spinach casserole, mousse de canard on slices of baguette, another wonderful (and cheap!) burgundy bottle of wine from Beaune as we watch the fishermen, ducks and sunset over a medieval river town. Harbor master comes by to collect E10. This is the only port we've encountered that charged a fee.
Day 7: 0730 start just at the crack of dawn. Two huge locks to maneuver through with no problem, now that we know all the tricks . Back to St. Jean de Losne and return our boat. We meet an American couple returning their boat same time as us. He is from Redondo Beach and owns two boats. My husband is gratified to hear him comment that these boats do not drive like his...they handle opposite to what he expects when in reverse. Ha!
I'm going to end our Burgundy trip report right here. Just a quick note...after the cruise, we train from Dijon to Lausanne and get a sleeper and we awake in Venice. We are struck by the canals and boats...not by how diffeent it all is, but how SIMILAR it is to our last week on the canls of France. I'm sure that we would be more impressed if we hadn't just come from a week of navigating the locks. Listening to the valporetti shifting into reverse and gunning their engines to dock gave us Chagny Lock Flashbacks.
We spent another week and a half after Burgundy in Italy touring Venice, The Chianti Region and ending in Rome. Another report to come much later. I intended the (Burgundy Cruise) report to be short...alas, a long report. Enjoy!
Nov 10th, 2005, 11:17 AM
#3
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 895
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thjanks so much for your report. It reminded me of our beautiful week along the Canal du Midi, in a Crown Blue boat also!! Fortunately, we had along a brother-in-law who has a Captain's license, and the rest of us were his willing apprentices!!
Nov 10th, 2005, 11:44 AM
#4
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 2,630
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
You took exactly the same route my group did. (14 middle-aged Americans. We rented 2 "Classigues" at St. Jean de Losne." My best memory of the trip is walking through Santanay and dinner in Chagny at Le Saint Vincent. We loved Chalon sur Soane...once we walked "downtown", lovely village.
Will you do it again?
Will you do it again?
Nov 10th, 2005, 04:40 PM
#7
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 213
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
It's fun to read your wonderful report and compare it to our recent cruise on the Nivernais. I admire you both for handling the boat by yourselves; we had four people, and it still seemed like we were constantly hopping around. I can't imagine doing it with just 2 people.
It sounds like you had better luck with restaurants than we did.
We decided to do a one-way trip to avoid having to repeat all the scenery. It cost an extra $100, but was worth it. Was that a possibility for you?
It sounds like you had better luck with restaurants than we did.
We decided to do a one-way trip to avoid having to repeat all the scenery. It cost an extra $100, but was worth it. Was that a possibility for you?
Nov 10th, 2005, 05:36 PM
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 26
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Dabodin, your trip report inspired me to write our canal experience. Thanks for sharing!
Crown Blue Line had one route for a one week, one way trip, it was Fontenoy le Chateua to St. Jean de Losne or vice-versa. My husband really wanted to visit Beaune. We were not dissapointed by our one week -return trip. We had the opportunity to return to our favorite town, Verdun Sur Le Doubs and re-visit Seurre. Yes, it was a challenge handling the locks by ourselves...there is definitely a learning curve navigating the boat in and out of the locks, around large hotel barges, docking and reversing. We really did have a lovely time! From reading your report, I know you enjoyed your trip, as well.
SuzieC...yes, we are thinking of returning to France and traveling the area of Midi. Thank you for your suggestions and comments when I was planning our barge.
Crown Blue Line had one route for a one week, one way trip, it was Fontenoy le Chateua to St. Jean de Losne or vice-versa. My husband really wanted to visit Beaune. We were not dissapointed by our one week -return trip. We had the opportunity to return to our favorite town, Verdun Sur Le Doubs and re-visit Seurre. Yes, it was a challenge handling the locks by ourselves...there is definitely a learning curve navigating the boat in and out of the locks, around large hotel barges, docking and reversing. We really did have a lovely time! From reading your report, I know you enjoyed your trip, as well.
SuzieC...yes, we are thinking of returning to France and traveling the area of Midi. Thank you for your suggestions and comments when I was planning our barge.
Nov 10th, 2005, 10:07 PM
#9
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,962
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thanks for bringing back wonderful memories...only our barging was on the Canal de la Marne in the Alsace Lorraine area. Picturbook beautiful! and instead of having a hotel barge in front of us we had a commercial barge mowing us down from behind through a 2 km tunnel! It was just my husband and me and I remember the anxiety of that first lock (we, too, locked up first and locked down on the return)
I remember one night standing at a lock near where we had tied up for the night watching a Frenchman who singlehandedly maneuvered his penichette into the lock, and without throwing a single rope over a bollard, kept his boat in the middle as the gushing water filled the lock, talking to us the whole time no less!! The lock opened, he waved and drove off. Kudos. Now THAT's impressive!
I remember one night standing at a lock near where we had tied up for the night watching a Frenchman who singlehandedly maneuvered his penichette into the lock, and without throwing a single rope over a bollard, kept his boat in the middle as the gushing water filled the lock, talking to us the whole time no less!! The lock opened, he waved and drove off. Kudos. Now THAT's impressive!
Nov 11th, 2005, 06:37 AM
#10
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 3,589
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Interesting report...didn't know about barging. Sound like something for people looking for work and adventure, i.e., those in good physical condition and interested in river exploring on their own. Lots of time it seem for manuevering locks and docking.
Well, for us it will be group travel but I admire your independent spirit.
ozarksbill
Well, for us it will be group travel but I admire your independent spirit.
ozarksbill
Nov 16th, 2005, 01:13 PM
#11
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 2,642
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'm really happy you enjoyed Burgundy but there is one thing I have to tell you, Beaune is not the capital, Dijon is the official one (Palace of the dukes of Burgundy and Kir as a former mayor in the 60's for ex)
You'll have to come back then if you want to see the real one ;-)
corinne
You'll have to come back then if you want to see the real one ;-)
corinne
Nov 28th, 2005, 10:45 AM
#12
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 73
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Just finding your barge report and enjoyed it. I have barged in Ireland 4 times and love it. Can empathize with proceeding thru locks for the first time. The double ones are the most fun! Interesting that the French locks all have lockkeepers whereas in Ireland most of them are self operational. The locks in Northern Ireland are "push button" but those in the Republic are "push the timber" style to open the gates. If you are ever to consider barging in Ireland check out Canalways Ireland in Rathangan, Co. Kildare.
Nov 28th, 2005, 12:55 PM
#13
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,962
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Just so you don't have the misconception. Isadore 204. It depends on the particualr canal in France...some have lock keepers, some don't.
We did not on our portion of the Canal de la Marne; I suspect this is because the locks were electric (sort of like the train system-- with an engineer somewhere centrally located controlling all the locks wtih a circuit board)You would push a button to talk to him (wherever that was) and let him know your plans and then you just lifted a pole each time you entered a lock to let them know you were ready; the lock would close, fill and open automatically. Piece of cake even for just 2 people!
We did not on our portion of the Canal de la Marne; I suspect this is because the locks were electric (sort of like the train system-- with an engineer somewhere centrally located controlling all the locks wtih a circuit board)You would push a button to talk to him (wherever that was) and let him know your plans and then you just lifted a pole each time you entered a lock to let them know you were ready; the lock would close, fill and open automatically. Piece of cake even for just 2 people!
Dec 5th, 2005, 07:28 AM
#17
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Any suggestions how to find a really bargain barge trip in France? We could be a group of 6-7 people ready to spend around 500-600$ each per up to one week on a canal barge. There are lot of high-priced offers (1500$ and above) in internet however there must be a plenty of cheaper options as well. Any ideas?
Dec 5th, 2005, 12:10 PM
#19
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 22,972
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thread
Original Poster
Forum
Replies
Last Post
whitehall
Europe
6
Jul 15th, 2019 05:36 PM
SkaiSW
Australia & the Pacific
30
Jan 1st, 2009 03:36 AM
amy
Europe
7
Nov 8th, 2002 12:03 PM
