Canal Barge Cruises in France

[donaldsc]

I am not sure if this is the best place to post this but I can't find a more appropriate site on CC.  I am thinking about doing a canal barge cruise probably in France.  We are looking for a barge that holds 10 - 20 or so passengers.  Trip length around 7 days.  Not certain about which area in France.  I have not done anything like this before.  Any thoughts, ideas, suggestion, barge suggestion, WEB site recommendations would be appreciated.

 

DON

[Canal archive]

Try European barge ***** or French-waterways.com there are several to choose from. We are trying for the third time next year with friends on a barge self drive on the Canal du Nivernais I may be biased but it’s supposed to be absolutely beautiful and it’s twinned with the canal I’m involved with. Friends who have cruised on hotel barges have said it’s idilic peaceful and calming.

[slidergirl]

I'm doing a barge trip on the Rhone canal in Southern France, Arles to Sete.  I'm with a small group of women and the barge has been chartered by our tour company.  But, I can go to the website of the company, CruisiEurope and see our barge and check out the details of the barge.  It's just what I have wanted to do for a few years - a leisurely float with a small group, walking or biking when I wanted, gourmet food by a nice staff.  We have our own "leader" who has tours or events for us at each stop.  They are slightly different from what CruisiEurope does - we're doing women-centric history and ranches and oyster farms...

[donaldsc]

29 minutes ago, slidergirl said:

I'm doing a barge trip on the Rhone canal in Southern France, Arles to Sete.  I'm with a small group of women and the barge has been chartered by our tour company.  But, I can go to the website of the company, CruisiEurope and see our barge and check out the details of the barge.  It's just what I have wanted to do for a few years - a leisurely float with a small group, walking or biking when I wanted, gourmet food by a nice staff.  We have our own "leader" who has tours or events for us at each stop.  They are slightly different from what CruisiEurope does - we're doing women-centric history and ranches and oyster farms...

 

Thanks for the reply.  I never expected replies so quickly on what seemed to me to be an unusual type of cruise.  I looked up CruisiEurope on the internet.  Which barge and which trip did you select.

 

I should have added in my post that if we do this barge cruise, we will be coming off 14 days (B2B) in the Greek Islands on a Clipper Cruise Lines Star Flyer.  This cruise which will be on a full rigged sailboat which should be really cool.  We originally had 21 days (B2B2B) but my wife thought that this might be too much so I am looking for something interesting to finish off the trip in Europe.  Two weeks on a full rigged sailboat followed by a week on a French canal barge should be an interesting combination.

 

DON

[slidergirl]

We're doing the Anne Marie.   The closest itinerary of cruisieurope to what we are doing is the "Charming Provence" trip.  We are doing a ranch for the horses and bulls, and oyster beds, but we are doing special women-owned properties.  It's what this tour agency does - all women trips and visit as many women-owned properties and talk about how women play a role in local life and history.  

Sailboat and then a lazy barge sounds wonderful.

[Gourmet Gal]

Try French Waterways and Belmond.  Both have very nice boats, various sizes. I highly recommend chartering the entire boat with friends and family.  The boats are so small that it seems a little awkward to cruise with other unknown people in such close quarters.  It’s like being confined to a small floating B&B - awkward if you don’t like the fellow cruisers but of course great fun if you do like them.

[Gourmet Gal]

Do you mean Croisi Europe?

[slidergirl]

20 hours ago, Gourmet Gal said:

Do you mean Croisi Europe?

I did.  I always mistype the "o" for a "u".  The website is all small letters and all one word.

Edited December 12, 2021 by slidergirl

[donaldsc]

2 hours ago, slidergirl said:

I did.  I always mistype the "o" for a "u".  The website is all small letters and all one word.

 

One of my worries and this is to everyone who has kindly responded is that we would be going in mid October which is fall.  I wonder how cold it would be then and whether I might be better off trying to find a cruise in Southern France.  

 

DON

[Canal archive]

Your right Southern France would be decidedly warmer and still several times choose from. Good luck.

[m & b]

We are considering a barge cruise instead of our usual Viking River cruise.  Any comments or recommendations from those who have done both.  We are worried there is not enough to do on the barge.  We like down time but also like activities, groups, etc.

Thanks, Mary

[Canal archive]

Last year we with our friends hired a barge on the canal du Nivernais below a light lunch whilst waiting for the lockeeper.
 

 

We met up with quite a few groups of Americans doing the same thing.

 

Although this may be more up your street, looked good and the passengers certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by Canal archive

[bfamily9]

On 12/10/2021 at 10:13 PM, donaldsc said:

I am not sure if this is the best place to post this but I can't find a more appropriate site on CC.  I am thinking about doing a canal barge cruise probably in France.  We are looking for a barge that holds 10 - 20 or so passengers.  Trip length around 7 days.  Not certain about which area in France.  I have not done anything like this before.  Any thoughts, ideas, suggestion, barge suggestion, WEB site recommendations would be appreciated.

 

DON

I would recommend a barge cruise of Alsace or the Canal du Midi. Most Alsace tours depart from Strasbourg. You can take a fast train from Paris. I haven't done either one, but they are on my bucket list.

[gnome12]

14 hours ago, bfamily9 said:

I would recommend a barge cruise of Alsace or the Canal du Midi. Most Alsace tours depart from Strasbourg. You can take a fast train from Paris. I haven't done either one, but they are on my bucket list.

The fast train from Paris Est is much more frequent and a bit faster, but there are also fast trains from Frankfurt (hauptbahnhof).

[bfamily9]

3 hours ago, gnome12 said:

The fast train from Paris Est is much more frequent and a bit faster, but there are also fast trains from Frankfurt (hauptbahnhof).

I see you, like me, are not partisan to any one cruise company. To me, I first choose an itinerary, then I chose the company that best fits. On the other hand Ama Waterways, I recently learned, offers several discounts that other companies do not. They offer military discounts and good discounts for frequent customers. What did you think of your Myanmar cruise? It was much different than any other cruise I have taken. The highlight for me was not all the golden temples, but when we went to a country school where we provided some school supplies to the children. It was in Pha Hto Village. Since the recent turmoil in the country I would not go there today.

[gnome12]

24 minutes ago, bfamily9 said:

What did you think of your Myanmar cruise? It was much different than any other cruise I have taken. The highlight for me was not all the golden temples, but when we went to a country school where we provided some school supplies to the children. It was in Pha Hto Village. Since the recent turmoil in the country I would not go there today.

I enjoyed it, but it was different from the others. The ship is very small, only 18 cabins, and we had only 18 passengers. Strangely, I was the only passenger on my wing of the lower deck; I guess people preferred to be either on the upper deck, or below cabins rather than the dining room and lounge, but I didn't have any issues. The crew was amazingly helpful; I was travelling with a cane due to a knee issue, and any time we had to climb out of the river up to the bank there was a crew member to provide me with assistance, as well as at most of the stops. I loved the panorama cabins on Avalon; sometimes when we were cruising I would open up the sliding window, set the screen, and sit in bed and watch the scenery go by. My highlight was probably the sunset boat ride at the U Bein bridge.

 

I too would not go today.

[bfamily9]

On our Myanmar cruise, we had only 9 passengers with a crew of 34. It was the first cruise of the season, so they went with only those few booked passengers.They used it as a training cruise. They later sold the boat and no longer cruise Myanmar. One of our passengers was a Microsoft attorney who went on to  a Nepal trek afterwards. I've learned that many passengers seem to be attorneys; at least that is what I found on my cruises last year. I guess it's a good way to de-stress for therm.