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Tag: River Cruising

The Start of a Journey-part 2

Start of a Journey
Canal du Midi, France

Lori and I were on our second passports with less than 5 years remaining and they were still unused, the first had expired without a stamp.  We had envisioned visiting Europe with my parents for years.  We had guide books to Italy and Scotland that were no longer current enough to be useful.  We dreamed of leisurely walking tours in the Scottish highlands or bicycling through Tuscany.  We could imagine going from Inn to Inn, milling around villages in the country side.  We anticipated spending quality time enjoying good company without the imposition of projects we have joined to participate in in the past. 

We have fond memories of time spent with my parents.  They have come to spend weeks with us helping to build our house or finish a project.  We have made visits to their house to work on projects that needed to be done.  These projects were always gratifying, some of my favorite memories.  The work was good, we got a lot accomplished and we had good company, still I would like once to spend time exploring with them at leisure, not working on a schedule.

My parents are getting older and are not as able to travel as they were.  We realize that there are things that are important to us that we are missing.  If we keep waiting till tomorrow, tomorrow will never come and those opportunities will be gone for good.  Some of the types of trips we had considered in the past were no longer practical, since my father suffered bouts of issues with his back that could at times limit his mobility, but we were still interested in a trip that fulfilled that basic desire for exploration and was not limited to ingesting sites tailored for consumption. 

October is about the earliest I would be available to travel since I had fire fighting responsibilities as part of my job.  The previous years fire season had been active so we were financially ahead and we had our 25th anniversary coming up this October as another excuse.  A call confirmed that my parents were excited about planning a trip together, now just to decide where and what to do.  

My father had purchased a timeshare that could be traded for timeshares in Europe that we were perusing for ideas when I noticed narrowboats in England.  Timing wasn’t optimal, a cold wet fall in England didn’t sound so appealing.  Much to my surprise, canals and inland waterway travel was common throughout much of Europe and France has about 2700 miles of inland canals.

Boat travel from a practical stand point seemed to meet our needs, but it also evokes some romantic notions.  We could move at our own pace through the countryside and villages along the waterway, we could enjoy a routine and not have to regularly relocate, we could cook and a boat would accommodate travel even if mobility was an issue.  Considering the time of year we were going to travel we settled on France as a destination due to the climate and the numerous hire boat operators and regions available.  

We haven’t had the same travel experiences since I traveled with my parents as a child.  They have been traveling as part of retirement, mostly with guided tours.  It is a convenient way to travel, there are some bargains to be had and the details are dealt with.  For the last 6 years Lori and I have been motorcycle touring without a great deal of planning other than a general direction, a map and reliance on the ability to cover a lot of ground to give serendipity the opportunity to provide insights.  

As the first trip with my parents as an adult and what could be the only one,  I wanted this trip to meet all of our needs.  As I consider the logistics and our desires for an envisioned trip, I develop parameters, these included; boat availability with 2 cabins, potential for decent weather, a travel path that included numerous towns and villages, and ideally a one way tour or a loop to avoid backtracking.  Backtracking turned out to be a limiting factor for most of the hire boat operators.  There are 8 hire boat cruising regions in France, but only a couple that have multiple rental boat bases in a single region, which would accommodate a one way rental, the loops would take more time than we had available.  This narrowed the search down to the Canal du Midi and the Canal de Nivernias. 

We choose the Canal du Midi since it is the furthest south and passed though a variety of towns, villages and cities as part of the route we had planned.  We completed our Itinerary with a  plan to fly into Paris and rent an apartment there for a few days, then take a train to Toulouse before going on to Castelnaudary to board our boat.  

We have some friends who are from the Languedoc region of France & they let us know that in the countryside people may not be able to speak anything but French and that it would be good if we knew a little bit of the language.  By June all of our planning was done and we just had to work and study French until we were to leave in October.

*****

This is the end of the second installment in the ongoing series that details our introduction to river cruising on the European waterways and to our purchase and outfitting of our own boat to for travel and living in Europe. If you are interested in being notified of future installment releases, Subscribe to this series in the sidebar on the right.

If you missed the first installment it can be found under the category “A New Adventure-Series”


The Start of a Journey-Part 1

French Countryside

The sun washes out the fall colors as it climbs toward noon.  We slowly pass orchards on one side of the canal, where wagons are being filled with the grapes.  Fields of sunflowers yet to be harvested bent yearning toward the sun on the other.  Chateaus that have overlooked this ground for 400 years are on the distant hills, as we approach a tunnel of plane trees that will engulf us in shade and hide us from view. 

Sunflower field

The next lock will close a little before 12 o’clock so as not to infringe on the lock keepers lunch.  We could speed up and maybe make it before the lock closes, another lock behind us before lunch.  The sun is warm, the canal peaceful.  I am checking off benchmarks, efficiently using the day to accomplish my goals.  I struggle with non-action.  

A fisherman has parked beside the canal, his stool set in the sun for a day of waiting for a fish to bite.  Just before entering the tunnel of trees and leaving the sun is a little wharf  separated from the fisherman by 500 meters and the width of the canal.  “There is a good place for lunch”, Lori points out, supported my my mother.  

It would mean farther to go after lunch, but we wouldn’t be racing time to catch a lock and missing the delights of the day, besides there is a wharf here.  Fortunately I am the only person on this boat obsessed with goals.  I bring the boat in and tie up.

It was market day in Bram this morning.  A small village built with streets arranged in concentric circles around a fortress church dating from the 12th century.  We rode our bicycles the kilometer from the canal where we had moored for the night to find the village transformed into an outdoor market.  The stalls began just as you entered the village on the main street then snaked through the town, a feast for the senses occupying the entire street with a menagerie of colors, smells and activity.  When I had come into Bram the night before the streets were empty and signs of life were scarce, this mornings bustle elicits images of a summer fair.  We moved from stall to stall selecting fruits, vegetables, cheeses, meats and bread intoxicated by the array of items, before returning to the boat to start our travel for the day.  Now pulled to the side of the canal in the noon sun, we indulge in the harvest of the morning.

The Market in Bram

Mom and Lori started laying out this mornings bounty into a smorgasbord of local meats, cheeses, olives, bread and, of course wine, all displayed across the table on the deck of the boat in the sun.  Time no longer mattered, the sun had taken the chill off of the fall morning, a light breeze blew the smell of autumn across the fields and we enjoyed it all while life went on around us, following the circadian clock of the season.

It didn’t take long that day, it was our second day on the canal, when I left my stress behind and changed the pace I was living at.  I didn’t insist we depart just before one O’clock to ensure we were the first in the queue to enter the lock, we didn’t even depart at one O’clock and I was fine with it.  I had transitioned from meeting goals to experiencing another culture.  

For me this is the what I am looking for while traveling, not a rush from destination to destination, but to become part of the environment, to experience another culture to become part of it.   

Maybe I have taken the first step, I’ve noticed that the French seem to prioritize their life, not on their work and making money, but on enjoying the pleasures available. 

*****

This is the end of the first installment in the ongoing series that details our introduction to river cruising on the European waterways, to our purchase and outfitting of our own boat for travel and living in Europe. If you are interested in being notified of future installment releases, Subscribe to this series in the sidebar on the right.