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.

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.

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 experience in France was that it was mostly loud Americans who used the "maybe if I speak English
really loudly he'll understand" method of communicating with the French -who not surprisingly speak
French- were the ones getting insulted

the_bmac wrote:
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 experience in France was that it was mostly loud Americans who used
the "maybe if I speak English really loudly he'll understand" method of
communicating with the French -who not surprisingly speak French- were
the ones getting insulted

(Shrug) Maybe. I have had good experiences in
French territories (F.P. & Martinique).

However, I've heard second hand stories about the
rudeness of the French waiters to _all_ customers,
and not just the Americans and Brits. I have not
experienced this myself. Perhaps someone who has
been to Paris recently would care to comment.

Don W.

Wayne.B wrote in
news
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.



I sail with an English captain. I've been to France a few times, as well
as England. You have to stay a few weeks in both places to see my point.
It's not the place so much as the people.

English, Welch and Scottish people have always been so warm to me, a
complete American stranger. I cannot say the same for the French my
father risked his life to help recover their country. I wouldn't.

Give me a warm pub in a country village with those great ales they've
been making for a thousand years every time. Hell, they're just across
the quay where you tie up the longboat!...(c; ......not to mention those
wonderful freckled English girls I don't need an interpreter to talk
to...

Larry
--