On Sat, 25 Oct 2014 15:29:24 -0500, Califbill
wrote:

We chartered a 40 something canal boat in France a few years ago from
a big outfit called "Le Boat." Standard equipment provided for that
sort of tie up is a couple of steel spikes and a big hammer. I recall
they also provided a board to serve as a walkway to the river bank.

http://www.leboat.com

How about a separate thread on this trip. Sounds interesting. Likes and
dislikes, etc.

===

I think that I probably posted something about it at the time but I
wouldn't mind rehashing some of it.

"Le Boat" is a big operation and has charter boats all over Europe in
many different size ranges. Ours was about 44 ft and had two state
rooms, each with a private head and shower. Amidships was a good size
living and dining space. Topside there was an upper deck with a helm
station, quite a bit of seating, and a few folding umbrellas. We
chartered with another couple that we know well so there were 4 of us
on board and lots of room for everyone. Our boat was relatively new
and in excellent condition.

The boat was powered by a small single engine diesel and had electric
bow thrusters for maneuverability. One interesting feature of the
engine was that it had a built in generator for AC power. It only
worked at a certain RPM range and there was an indicator light to let
you know when it was at the right speed. The boat had a very
efficient diesel heating system powered by the 12 volt house
batteries. We were in the Burgundy wine region in late September so
we appreciated the heat in the morning.

Our itinerary was a one way route starting on the Saône River south of
Dijon in a little town called Gray, and we ended up a week later in a
town called Branges. More info he

http://www.leboat.com/vacations/destinations/france/burgundy/cruises/the-three-regions-cruise

This is a nice laid back cruise that goes through some interesting
towns and some very scenic country side. There are some locks to
negotiate, mostly self operated, but quite easy to master. My wife
speaks fluent French so we never had any language issues but there are
people who speak some English almost everywhere. It always helps of
course if you know some common words or phrases in advance.

We flew into Paris, rented a car at the airport and drove down to
Dijon for lunch - nice town with a lot of history and fine old
buildings. And of course there's always the mustard which is sold
just about everywhere. We stayed that night at an old country inn
outside of Gray. In the morning we dropped off the car and picked up
the boat.

Le Boat does a good job of providing you with all required charts and
equipment. For a navigation supplement I had a small lap top with a
USB GPS and a copy of Microsoft's European street mapping software. We
had WiFi connectivity just about everwhere.

Here's a YouTube video filmed on the Seille River near our final leg
into Branges:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tb5C-ON-MM

As you can see, this is not a trip for speed demoms. :-)