Hi group,

I've just reread Weston Martyr's "The 200# Millionaire". It's got me
dreaming about cruising the inland waterways of Europe.
Thing is, the story was written in the 1930s. It claims that you can
get pretty much everywhere in France and central Europe through inland
waterways, even all the way to Budapest, Prague, etc. Is this still
true? Are these inland canals still in operation or have they been
abandoned in the last 70 years? If there are still as many
possibilities as Martyr talked about, what kind of draft is
acceptable?

Anyone done it?

Regards,
-Maxime Camirand

mcamirand wrote in news:1178136944.191022.11930
@y80g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:

Hi group,

I've just reread Weston Martyr's "The 200# Millionaire". It's got me
dreaming about cruising the inland waterways of Europe.
Thing is, the story was written in the 1930s. It claims that you can
get pretty much everywhere in France and central Europe through inland
waterways, even all the way to Budapest, Prague, etc. Is this still
true? Are these inland canals still in operation or have they been
abandoned in the last 70 years? If there are still as many
possibilities as Martyr talked about, what kind of draft is
acceptable?

Anyone done it?

Regards,
-Maxime Camirand

Friends of mine did part of France a few years back. Here is a good starting point:

http://www.canals.com/

Hi Maxime,
the french canal network has indeed receded in the past 70 years. The
total length has decreased from 12,000 km to 8,000 km in this period.
However, most of the routes still exist and provide the ability to go
basically anywhere from anywhere but the notable exception of the Loire
that is not navigable any more, leading to the network of Brittany being
isolated from the rest of the network.

mcamirand a écrit :
Hi group,

I've just reread Weston Martyr's "The 200# Millionaire". It's got me
dreaming about cruising the inland waterways of Europe.
Thing is, the story was written in the 1930s. It claims that you can
get pretty much everywhere in France and central Europe through inland
waterways, even all the way to Budapest, Prague, etc. Is this still
true? Are these inland canals still in operation or have they been
abandoned in the last 70 years? If there are still as many
possibilities as Martyr talked about, what kind of draft is
acceptable?

Anyone done it?

Regards,
-Maxime Camirand

mcamirand wrote in news:1178136944.191022.11930
@y80g2000hsf.googlegroups.com:

Are these inland canals still in operation or have they been
abandoned in the last 70 years?

BBC had a wonderful documentary done by a guy who lived and traveled on a
barge pushed by his own little tugboat...er, ah, pushboat. The
documentary was done in segments and I watched it as it was posted to
alt.binaries.multimedia.documentaries a couple of years ago. It was a
wonderful series.

He met some really strange bureaucrats going over borders. For instance,
the German bureaucrats forced him to add this HUGE anchor and windlass to
the stern of his tugboat to comply with some strange regulation on the
Rhine River before he could get on it out of France. Of course, there
were dealers specialising in huge anchors and windlasses just waiting to
steal his money for the project so he could be on his way. That happened
in many places as borders were crossed.

Some of the bizarre locking systems and bathtub lifts that go up and down
massive incline railways up the sides of mountains in the Alps were just
fascinating. The documentary just stopped as these, sometimes very old,
systems were studied and videos made.

My fantasy is a longboat on the canals of the UK. I've a massive list of
websites found on Google. What a great way to spend an entire summer in
England....just putt putting around with the little diesels before the
world runs out of fuel, altogether.

Larry
--

On Thu, 03 May 2007 01:00:29 +0000, Larry wrote:

What a great way to spend an entire summer in
England...

Why England when you could do the same thing in the south of France?
The French cooking and wines are *much* better, scenery about the
same.

Wayne.B wrote:
On Thu, 03 May 2007 01:00:29 +0000, Larry wrote:


What a great way to spend an entire summer in
England...


Why England when you could do the same thing in the south of France?
The French cooking and wines are *much* better, scenery about the
same.

Why allow yourself to be insulted en Francais by
the French, when the English are mostly polite and
friendly? And if they aren't, you can at least
understand their insults '-)

Don W.

Larry wrote:

mcamirand wrote in news:1178136944.191022.11930
:

Are these inland canals still in operation or have they been
abandoned in the last 70 years?

BBC had a wonderful documentary done by a guy who lived and traveled on a
barge pushed by his own little tugboat...er, ah, pushboat. The
documentary was done in segments and I watched it as it was posted to
alt.binaries.multimedia.documentaries a couple of years ago. It was a
wonderful series.

He met some really strange bureaucrats going over borders. For instance,
the German bureaucrats forced him to add this HUGE anchor and windlass to
the stern of his tugboat to comply with some strange regulation on the
Rhine River before he could get on it out of France. Of course, there
were dealers specialising in huge anchors and windlasses just waiting to
steal his money for the project so he could be on his way. That happened
in many places as borders were crossed.

Some of the bizarre locking systems and bathtub lifts that go up and down
massive incline railways up the sides of mountains in the Alps were just
fascinating. The documentary just stopped as these, sometimes very old,
systems were studied and videos made.

My fantasy is a longboat on the canals of the UK. I've a massive list of
websites found on Google. What a great way to spend an entire summer in
England....just putt putting around with the little diesels before the
world runs out of fuel, altogether.


My dream was to go over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/2d2ca/#TL But we didn't manage
that because it would have taken at least a week. We had to be
satisfied with a long weekend where my daughter, grandson and SIL
helped with the locks etc. We got my SIL to do it by promising that
he could visit the pubs along the way.
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/4a9c6/4ca7d/

On Wed, 02 May 2007 21:41:37 -0500, Don W
wrote:

Why allow yourself to be insulted en Francais by
the French, when the English are mostly polite and
friendly? And if they aren't, you can at least
understand their insults '-)

My wife speaks fluent French so we could understand the insults either
way. I have a thick skin regardless.

mcamirand wrote:
Hi group,

I've just reread Weston Martyr's "The 200# Millionaire". It's got me
dreaming about cruising the inland waterways of Europe.
Thing is, the story was written in the 1930s. It claims that you can
get pretty much everywhere in France and central Europe through inland
waterways, even all the way to Budapest, Prague, etc. Is this still
true? Are these inland canals still in operation or have they been
abandoned in the last 70 years? If there are still as many
possibilities as Martyr talked about, what kind of draft is
acceptable?

Anyone done it?

Regards,
-Maxime Camirand

The ultimate inland voyage is the Rhine-Main-Danube. The two massive rivers
are now joined by canal, and you can enter the Rhine at Rotterdam and exit
the Danube Delta into the Black Sea. I believe you need care in your choice
of vessel as the Rhine flows North and needs a vessel with ample power to
make headway. Allow about 6 months for the trip and also vast amounts of
patience as the rivers flow through Eastern European countries where
officialdom reigns supreme!

I also knew a guy some years ago who sailed his boat from Ireland to
Marseilles and entered the French canal system, thence heading north to
Brest and back to Ireland. Not the sort of journey you could complete in a
2-week vacation! The main problems with taking a sea-going vessel into the
canals are concerned with unstepping and re-stepping the mast.

Having recently passed thru the Kiel canal (Nordsee Kanal) east-to-west, I
can advise that it can be done in a day! (about70 miles). This is because
the absence of locks (one at each end only) and the width of the canal
allows a fast passage to be made, particularly if you don't mind sharing
your space with a 30,000 ton cargo vessel! I can also advise that the River
Elbe is similar to the M1 motorway in UK , or Route 66 in the US!

Dennis.

"mcamirand" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi group,

I've just reread Weston Martyr's "The 200# Millionaire". It's got me
dreaming about cruising the inland waterways of Europe.
Thing is, the story was written in the 1930s. It claims that you can
get pretty much everywhere in France and central Europe through inland
waterways, even all the way to Budapest, Prague, etc. Is this still
true? Are these inland canals still in operation or have they been
abandoned in the last 70 years? If there are still as many
possibilities as Martyr talked about, what kind of draft is
acceptable?

Anyone done it?

Regards,
-Maxime Camirand


An ex SF couple - I've been following their travels for a few years now.

www.billandnancy.com/

Hoges in WA