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Have you ever dreamed about a luxury vacation with a personal chef preparing amazing food, served with premium wines and a chance to see the French countryside up close and personal? Then you just might enjoy a cruise down the Burgundy canal aboard a European Waterways hotel barge, such as La Belle Epoque. Several of our friends had taken one or more of these cruises and raved about them, so Valeria and I decided to give it a try. As it turned out, that was a very good decision.

European Waterways offers a number of cruises all over Europe, but France seemed like a good place to start. If they couldn’t get the food and wine right in France, there was no point in trying anywhere else. We chose a date toward the end of the season since we wanted to visit Paris after the rush of summer tourists. October is a lovely time to be in France and it worked well for us.

Our cruise lasted seven days with six night on board the barge. I will take you through the entire cruise over a number of blog posts that will highlight one part of each day’s activities. This first post will include some brief introductory notes and cover the most boring part of the trip as we drove from Paris, where the passengers assemble, to Tanlay, where we boarded the barge. Even though a good portion of the trip was down a freeway, the scenery was often beautiful as we rode across the French countryside, as you will see in the photographs below.

One of the best features of a barge cruise is that you have a lot of flexibility in deciding what to do—or not to do. You can, if you wish, simply sit on the deck and sip Champagne all day as the barge proceeds slowly through the canal and locks. You can also walk along the canal, exploring the little villages or anything else that catches your eye as you go. The path along the side of the canal is perfectly flat and an easy walk. The barge travels slowly and has to stop every kilometer (0.6 mi) or so to pass through a lock. You can walk at a comfortable pace and easily keep up. There are also enough bicycles on board for each passenger to grab a bike and peddle off down the canal path or up into the countryside. It’s all up to you.

Each day also features some planned tours with a crew member as a guide. Again, up to you. Tag along, or keep sipping that Champagne, riding your bike, or jogging down the canal tow path. You will see all of these activities as I take you through the week.

For this cruise, passengers met at a hotel in Paris and were carried in Mercedes minivans to the dock where the barge was waiting. One week the barge cruises from Tanlay to Venarey-les-Laumes and the next week it cruises in the opposite direction. La Belle Epoque carries a maximum of 12 passengers looked after by six crew members. They boarded us onto two minivans (big enough to be comfortable even for my 6′ 2″, 230 pound self) and off we went to get a look at the French countryside on the way to Tanlay, where our cruise would start.

The drive from Paris to Tanlay took about 2 hours so, of course, there was a need for a comfort and convenience stop along the way. We paused at a typical gas station-restaurant-convenience store combination of the type that can be seen on freeways in many countries these days. Unfortunately, far from being typical of the country you are in, most of them could be almost anywhere. This one greeted us with a sign advertising all-you-can-eat paella, a rice, saffron and seafood dish that is more at home in Spain than central France.

The food police are as alive and well in France as they are in the US. Note the fine print at the bottom of the poster that advises (roughly translated) “For your health, practice a physical activity regularly.”

You might think that we had left burgers and fries back home in the good old US of A, but, no. If you want a taste of home, it is readily available even in the French countryside.

Indeed, if you had been sleeping on the van and woke up to see these signs, you might have thought that the driver took a wrong turn and ended up in New Jersey.

But, happily, as we continued the truck stops were few and the scenery was beautiful. The warm yellows of autumn were breaking out, and the warm afternoon light gave the trees a beautiful glow.

It was not long until we turned off the freeway onto the country road that would take us through the very famous town (and vineyards) of Chablis.

Like many winemaking regions, Chablis has had its ups and downs over the years, but it is currently up and the wines are, depending, as always, on the year and the producer, as good or better than they ever were. We will visit Chablis later in the trip and you will see much more of the town, its vineyards and the wines produced there. For today, we just waved as we passed through and got a first look at the vineyards as we drove by.

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Our route took us through the charming commune of Fley.

Finally, we arrived in Tanlay and got our first glimpse of the barge that would be our home for the next 7 days, La Belle Epoque.

We were welcomed aboard with a glass of Champagne (real Champagne, capital “C”—not sparkling wine or cava or Prosecco—real Champagne) and a few hors d’oeuvres. We even had a little time to explore Tanlay before our first dinner on board, all of which I will cover in the next installment of this trip report, A Barge Cruise on the Burgundy Canal, Day 1, Part 2, Tanlay, October 2012. Until then, enjoy a preview of what is to come in this video produced by European Waterways to advertise the cruise.

The gallery contains some images not shown in the blog entry.

All images were taken with a Canon 5D Mark III camera and a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens using ambient light. Post-processing in Adobe Lightroom^® and Adobe Photoshop^® with Nik/Google plugins. The author has no affiliation with European Waterways or any of the locations or products described.