By Boat Through The French Canals and Rivers
Information and assistance regarding travelling the French Inland Waterways.
Welcome to the web page of Brenda and John Davison, we are a retired couple who live on the Wirral in the UK,and who keep a boat on the French canals.
We have designed this page to answer the questions so many people ask when contemplating using the French waterways. We hope you will find the answers to those questions here.
We are ‘second-time arounders’. John has been sailing all his adult life, Brenda joined him in his hobby over 20 years ago and together we have sailed extensively in England and NW Scotland, eventually taking a 10m Prout Snowgoose catamaran, called Chefren to Greece via the French canals, Corsica and Italy. We were so beguiled by France and its inland waterway system that we returned 4 years later and bought a Dutch steel canal boat on which we now explore France.
This is not a commercial site and we have nothing to sell except a couple of books which Brenda has written about our sailing adventures - Floating Through France, and Floating Through Holland.
Brenda also is lead editor for Cruising the Inland Waterways of France and Belgium, published by the Cruising Association - an invaluable update to the existing Carte Guides.
This web site was uploaded as a result of Brenda collecting a wealth of information towards a book which was never published,and rather than waste the effort it resulted in this site.
Please feel free to contact us with specific queries and we will help if we can. We are also glad of contributions from your own experience. Just bear in mind that during the summer months our contact is restricted by the fact that we have no Internet access on the boat and have to rely on Internet cafés.
When we bought our canal boat she was called Liberty, but we had our hull repainted in 2008 and took the opportunity to change the name as there are too many boats called Liberty in France. (We are not superstitious!) The new name is La Vie en Rose which reflects the wonderful (rosy) life which we live during the summer, as well as paying tribute to one of France's greatest singers, Edith Piaf, whose signature song this was.
In 2011 our sailing plans were to explore the Burgundy Canal but found so much weed there that we retraced our steps of the year before and completed the circle from Auxerre, north to St. Mammes, then down the Canal du Loing, Canal de Briare and Canal Lateral a la Loire to Decize. We then returned via the Canal du Nivernais to Auxerre.
In 2012 we think we will try to get down to the Saône but are not sure which route we will take.
We are happy to report that following a diagnosis of prostate cancer in 2009 John's health remains good, all his treatments are finished, and we look forward to many more years exploring France
We love to meet up with those of you who have found this site helpful, thanks for getting in touch. We cannot remember all your names, or the names of your boats, so please make yourselves known to us.
Happy cruising in 2012.
