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Romantic Wine Country Barge Cruise
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Romantic Wine Country Barge Cruise
© 2003 Bonita Productions Inc.
Flag of France
Romantic Wine Country Barge Cruise
By Bonnie Neely
Photos by Bill Neely
For our very special wedding anniversary we decided to go on a barge trip through the wine country in France, having read rave reviews of such cruises. We decided to go with the best: European Waterways Ltd., a company which is, ironically, celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year also! Our tour guide and captain, Nick, met us at our Hotel Ampere (Phone: 01 44 29 17 17 , Fax: 01 44 29 16 50), where we had had a lovely three days getting over jet lag and enjoying Paris. The drive from Paris in the comfortable van was about two hours and Nick proved very entertaining and extremely knowledgeable about the places we passed along the way. We arrived in beautiful Auxerre, a scenic town which dates from the Third Century in Roman times. We arrived at our barge, La Belle Epoque, which is the grand dame of the Yonne River, where many barges and private boats were moored, and the flagship of the company.
The first night was in dock in Auxerre, watching a brilliant pink sunset glow behind the ancient cathedrals while we got to know our staff and fellow travelers over champaigne and a four course gourmet meal. 
Our chef is a graduate of a premiere French chef's school and has years of experience of delighting his guests with exquisite French cuisine and lovely presentation. Unlike many other crowded barge trips, this one specializes in large bedroom suites and spacious entertaining on deck, in the lounge, and intimate dining room and nearly one to one serve staff. This promised to be the trip of a lifetime!
Our chef is a graduate of a premiere French chef's school and has years of experience of delighting his guests with exquisite French cuisine and lovely presentation. Unlike many other crowded barge trips, this one specializes in large bedroom suites and spacious entertaining on deck, in the lounge, and intimate dining room and nearly one to one serve staff. This promised to be the trip of a lifetime!After sleeping comfortably in our air conditioned stateroom, we awoke to a lovely four course breakfast in which we could request anything we desired. As we left dock, we watched with fascination and ducked our heads as we passed under a very low bridge and into the first of over thirty locks which enable the barge to follow the canal through countryside which ascends over 1500 feet during the course of the week. Le Canal du Nivernais, which we entered early in the day, runs beside the Yonne River and was used since early 1800's to get logs and supplies to Paris from the forests and farms. Our barge is one of the original ones, completely re-done for modern conveniences, and the largest on the canal, so the locks are a tight fit and require the skill of our careful Captain. The ancient iron gates of the locks are hand cranked to control the water level so barges can ascend. Beside the canal is the flat, wide path along which the horses walked to pull the barges in early times.
Our barging was through the most picturesque scenery we had ever seen in France. The Bourgogne area is farming and vineyards, with stone houses and villages along the way which have seen centuries of river wanderers. In June the rolling hills with carefully run ribbons of green create the patches that meet the flatter golden grain fields, with poplar trees and vegetable gardens interspersed like quilt designs. Cherry trees are laden and red poppies nod their cheerful greeting. France, the world's second largest exporter of agricultural products has much of its farming center in this beautiful area. Being constantly on water we had expected mosquitoes and flies and high humidity, but how pleasantly surprised we were to find no bugs at all and a perfect climate with beautiful sunny skies and cool breezes day and night!
Barging is the perfect way to kick back and enjoy life at the relaxed pace we all need. If you are accustomed to a frantic schedule and workaholic habits as I am, this is the trip for you, although learning to relax can create internal tension at first. Just enjoy it! Wine afficionados love this trip because our hosts provide open bar 24 hours a day and a thorough education about French wines. We had two different wines of the region to learn about and enjoy with each meal.
The trip is planned to barge for half day and arrive at a special point of interest where we spend the other half day with a guided tour by our knowledgeable Captain Nick, who made each place come alive since he is a history enthusiast and a professional actor as well. His monologues were always well researched, fascinating, and funny.
Our first disembarkation was to go to St. Bris, founded by monks in Eleventh Century. The home of authentic Chablis wine, this tiny area produces the most coveted in northern Europe, vins de luxe. In Burgundy (Bourgogne) unique growing conditions of weather and rocky, limestone, hillside soil produce the best vintages. These oldest small, family-owned vineyards specialize in only two varieties of grapes, the red pinot noir and the white chardonnay, which are harvested in September and October.
Here wine is an investment and a labor of love and fine bottles are stored for years and even generations in the caves we were permitted to tour the twelfth century wine cellar of Monsieur Bersan. Inside the 15 miles of stone tunnels, first created to help the people of the Middle Ages escape underground and emerge in the woods where they were safe when marauders came. When times were safer they discovered wine stored in these caves at the constant 60 degrees aged perfectly. For over 150 years different families have stored their prized wines in bottles and casks here. We got to sample eight different wines of the region in this ancient tunnel.
On the second day we were up early to go by van back to Auxerre, the cultural capital of Basse Bourgogne (upper Burgundy), where we had an enlightened tour of the beautiful Gothic style St-Etienne Cathedral, which required 300 years to build and looks like Notre Dame with flying buttresses and only one tower.
Shopping in Auxerre is some of the best in France, so we had several hours to find our souvenirs in shops which were closed Sunday and Monday. This has always been an important town because it was on the Old Spice Route, the Yonne River, and Nivernais Canal and now the main highway. Always a thriving port for wine trade the region became part of France in 1477. Since railroad replaced river trade importance in Nineteenth Century Auxerre lost its economic importance but retained its charm for tourists. Now excellent restoration has turned much of the old city with its gold sundial clock into pedestrian shopping.An afternoon of barging brought us to dock for an elegant dinner at the special historic Auberge du Fontaine l'Accoulay, with its Twelfth century caves (wine cellar) and an ancient wayside inn where pilgrims and crusaders stopped en route to Vézelay where the Crusades organized. We enjoyed whatever we wanted to order from the extravagant menu and got the feel of real French country cuisine. We came to the realization that this was not only a beautiful and wonderful trip, but it is also well planned to be a thorough educational experience of what is truly French and the best thereof.
On our third day our tour was through beautiful agriculture hillsides to the little town of Vézelay with the Roman Basilica of St. Mary Magdalene on top of the hill. Here Medieval crusaders from three places converged before setting out for campaigns on Jerusalem. Since ancient times the crypt of the cathedral has been a shrine for the ashes and finger bone reliquary of Mary Magdalene. Pope Eugene II started the crusades in 1090. St. Bernard 1146 preached the Second Crusade here and Richard Lionhearted and King Philippe Auguste of France started the Third Crusade from here.
Today Vézelay is still a religious mecca, now claimed by Magdalene cultists and new age seekers. Many artists have made studios in the old brothels, which served weary pilgrims before they embarked on the Crusades and now display galleries of silk screens, oils, ceramics, and fiber arts. A wonderful place to select prized remembrances of our trip! Many of these buildings contain Roman vaulted cellars, some of which are converted to lovely restaurants and bars.
We returned to a delicious lunch aboard La Belle Epoque and then rode very good all terrain bikes along the wonderful path which follows the canal. Since the boat travels slowly, we arrived ahead of it into Mailly, a fairly modern yet beautifully quaint village.
The next day our first lock was a real treat because it was the home and workshop of a ceramic artist, Bruno Comparet (Tel. 03-86 81 00 80). There we saw his marvelous raku pottery that he has in galleries around France and is collected all over the world. There at the lockt the artist potter makes his pottery from Spanish clay and uses glazes of cobalt, copper, and fires the pottery in a gas kiln. We purchased very unusual pieces at quite reasonable prices.
The wines and cheeses, which are specialties of the Bourgogne region of France are exquisite fine ones which you can only enjoy here as they do not produce enough to export. We received an education and enjoyed two different ones at each meal, a hard aged cheese and a soft young cheese. How we wished we could take some of these home!Our next disembarkation was the lovely town of Censoir. Our daily tour van drove us through beautiful countryside and the 250 square mile National Park and scenic farms and vineyards.
Every crumbling limestone house seemed to have window boxes of red geraniums and pink roses climbing the beige stucco walls.
Trees line all the roads of towns and cities because Napoleon ordered everyone to plant them to shade his troops when they stopped
Our destination was Chateau Bazoches, home of Maréchal Vauban, in the village of Bazoches. Over a thousand years ago this large castle was built on the Old Spice Road. The owner, who hired mercenaries to rob the people or force them to pay tolls in order to pass safely, grew wealthy from the venture. In 1675 Vauban general to Louis XIV and one of France's most important men because of his prolific writing, inventions, and masterminding of battles, took over the castle as his home and the place he planned his military maneuvers. He invented metal canon balls and the bayonet mounted on guns.
The Chateau was lost to the Vauban family because of tax debts and was for several hundred years owned by a series of others but in the 1960's some of Vauban's heirs were able to purchase the chateau again. They have refurnished it in antiques of the period which the original Vaubans might have owned. The owners live in one part of the chateau and open the other side for tours.It was amazing to see how the elite lived in past centuries.
On our last morning we set off by van to the ancient town of Miserey, in which life was miserable until they discovered limestone, and from these quarries Paris was built. The huge stones were cut and taken by wagon to the canal and then by barge to Paris.
Because of hard times in the Eighteenth Century Napoleon III decided to make farming more scientific, so he created Ferme de Miserey, an experimental farm with separate buildings for each kind of animal and a conveyor belt for the collection of fertilizer which was spread by little trams through the farm. Horses were fed from above the stalls in the stables to prevent stable boys from being trampled; watering troughs worked like aqueducts from building to building. 
Today this remains a thriving family-owned farm where raising ducks is the primary industry. Foie gras (duck liver) has long been the national French favorite delicacy, and Ferme de Miserey is one of the main producers. In the showroom those who like foie gras enjoyed samples with the iced dessert wine of the region or with champagne. The gift shop is a good place to purchase food items also. But for animal lovers, the name Ferme de Miserey seems appropriate for the poor ducks.
Today this remains a thriving family-owned farm where raising ducks is the primary industry. Foie gras (duck liver) has long been the national French favorite delicacy, and Ferme de Miserey is one of the main producers. In the showroom those who like foie gras enjoyed samples with the iced dessert wine of the region or with champagne. The gift shop is a good place to purchase food items also. But for animal lovers, the name Ferme de Miserey seems appropriate for the poor ducks. 
Returning to the boat we barged for the last time in the afternoon after wonderful lunch of croque monsieur (grilled cheese & ham) or if we added a fried egg to the top it was croque mademoiselle. Always we had fresh salad with everything imaginable to add to it…today's special addition was marinated mushrooms with ham. We arrived in our last lock (43 in all) and docked in Clamecy, the Thirteenth Century rival in beauty to Chartres and Bourges. The cathedral here had magnificent stained glass from Medieval times.
Our final evening aboard featured the Captain's Dinner, the grand finale for our wonderful, relaxing week. The table decor was lovely with pink lilies for each of us. Our dinner was resplendent with many elaborate French specialities and special French pastry for dessert. The wines and cheeses were the most elegant of the week and so expensive none of us would dare order such in a restaurant. Our staff made it a festive evening as we signed the Guest Log and prepared to say good-bye to new friends who were returning to various parts of the English speaking world.
This trip is perfect for those who want complete rest and would be great to have four or five couples who are best friends because there is fabulous food and great time to linger over long meals and converse. Unlike large cruise ships there is no evening show, TV, or phone, so this is not the trip for just everyone. Games, books, exercize equipment and bicycles are always available. Each cabin is very comfortable and spacious with private, marble baths and air conditioning, impeccably clean but not fancy. There are about 6 steps to climb and doorway thresholds to remember to step over, like any ship galley, which could be difficult for some handicapped or elderly travelers. The excellent, friendly staff service was absolutely great and not in your face…you just need to mention your desire and it is met.
We got the true relaxation and rejuvenation a vacation is supposed to be and we'd love to do it again! To book YOUR barge trip in Europe click here for the many different offerings of European Waterways Ltd or phone 44 (0)1784 482439 or 1-800-394-8630 or Fax: 44 (0) 1784 483072.
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