It’s nearly thirty years since the first French freight barge was converted into a floating hotel, and tourists were able to experience the delights of cruising the canals of Burgundy and the Ile de France. Since then, hotel barging has spread through the considerable network of French canals and rivers - into Brittany, Alsace, the Loire, the Midi and the Charente. Canals that were falling into disrepair, as more freight was carried by road and rail, were revitalised by this new leisure traffic.
Hotel barges offered visitors a unique perspective of France, and still do - a look at countryside that can’t be seen from the road, at a pace which allows time to savour the experience. Guests can take a bike from the front deck and ride off to explore independently, and the barge bus will take them to visit chateaux, monasteries and vineyards.
Conditions in those early days were far from luxurious - the cabins had no private baths as they do now. The loos and showers were at the end of the corridor, with plumbing that sometimes left a lot to be desired. The atmosphere was more youth hostel than luxury cruiser, but the passengers (mostly American, with a sprinkling of English and Australian) seemed to catch the Boys’ Own adventure spirit of the crew (mostly English public school) and hardly noticed that the hot water had run out, or that the loo had blocked - again.
The meals were the best that a 20 year old from Huddersfield, fresh from a six week Cordon Bleu course, could produce in a badly designed galley with a temperamental gas cooker. The wine came in ten litre plastic containers and the crew referred to it as “vino collapso”. This was a reference not only to its usual effect on the drinker, but also to the wine itself. Newly opened, it was almost drinkable, but it degenerated fast and by the end of the week wasn’t fit to dress a salad.
There was an infectiously jolly, pioneering, flying-by-the-seat-of-our-pants feeling about the whole enterprise. The passengers loved it - it was different, unpredictable and fun. When the captain, returning with the breakfast pastries, fell into the canal while trying to get back on board without using the gangplank (something which happened more than once) the general feeling was that it was well worth a late breakfast to watch the spectacle, and that you’d never get entertainment like that on the QE2.
As news of the joys of canal cruising spread, operations became more professional and better organised. Barges became more comfortable, even luxurious, and each cabin got its own bathroom. Captains and croissants hardly ever went overboard anymore, and the big plastic kegs of vino collapso gave way to expertly selected cellars to set off the classy food which had also become the norm.
But smooth doesn’t have to mean stuffy, and much of the old spontaneity remains, with impromptu picnics, wine tastings and exploratory walks. Today, hotel barging is the ultimate unwinding holiday, with first-class food and wine, beautiful and ever-changing scenery, as much or as little sight-seeing as desired - on the barge’s own coach, by bicycle or on foot, all included in the cost of a cruise. There is a level of comfort and service never dreamed of in the early 1970s, and a choice of routes and regions to tempt the most jaded traveller.
Hotel barging began in Burgundy and it’s still the most popular cruising area, with the triple pull of glorious wine, food and landscape, but there are equally unforgettable routes in other parts of France. In Alsace, the canals wind through pine-clad forests, past marshlands full of bird life. The Midi region of southern France is the place for warm temperatures, Roman history and an emerging boutique wine industry.
BARBARA KEEN
For more about hotel barging today, click here
BESPOKE FRANCE
Robert Buchanan & Barbara Keen
PO Box 5489 DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND
ph : 03 472 7856 fax : 03 472 7855
I discovered hotel barging in the early 1970s, when it was just getting started. Conditions aboard weren’t quite up to the standards of today's luxury cruising, but the concept and the French waterways still worked their magic.
HOTEL BARGING IN FRANCE: THEN & NOW
