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In Part 1 of this series, A Barge Cruise on the Burgundy Canal, Part 1, Day 1, Paris to Tanlay, October 2013, I introduced the basic format of a barge cruise with European Waterways and took you on a photographic tour of our trip from Paris, where we stayed before the barge trip began, to Tanlay, where La Belle Epoque was waiting for unto begin our cruise. In this installment, we’ll be welcomed aboard La Belle Epoque, have some time to walk around the village of Tanlay, and enjoy our first dinner aboard the barge.

We ended Part 1 as we boarded La Belle Epoque in Tanlay.

To help you orient yourself to the ship, here is a short marketing video produced by European Waterways to publicize La Belle Epoque.

La Belle Epoque has a capacity of 12 passengers, and it was fully booked for this, the last cruise of the 2013 season. The 12 passengers were served by a crew of six for the week.

Anna Markham was our tour guide and the ship’s manager for the week. As we would learn, she really knew the history of the towns, villages and landmarks we would visit.

Alan Hearsey was our Pilot. Obviously a veteran on the canal, he guided us through spaces barely wide enough for the boat and under bridges so low that the wheel had to be folded down for the barge to pass under.

Charles, our Matelot (sailor) was the quintessential Frenchmen, having developed the Gallic shrug to an eloquent art form with which he could speak volumes without saying a word.

Katy Jennings was our chef. As you will see (and I wish you could taste), her skill in the kitchen was formidable, so much so that she had spent the summer fending off proposals from men who wanted to take her home. One suitor was in his 80s!

George Banks and Sadio were our hosts, which meant they did everything from cleaning the cabins to serving the meals and explaining the wines and cheeses. George is the son of the founder and owner of European Waterways, Derek Banks. Sadio was a beautiful Senegalese princess who spoke fluent French but was just starting to learn English. The six of them played a large part in creating a great experience as the week went on.

Note the hot tub and bicycles on the barge behind the crew. More about those as our trip continues.

We had one additional person, besides the crew and passengers, on this particular cruise, Monsieur Eric Bonal of The Wayfarers.

A number of cruises on the various European Waterways cruises are themed. Depending on the location of the cruise, there may be wine appreciation, opera, golf or other themes. We actually chose this particular week as it was designated as a walking tour. We love to walk but, as it turned out, keeping up with Eric was a challenge! Eric is a very experienced guide for The Wayfarers, a group that specializes in walking tours around the world. As I mentioned in the Day 1 Part 1 entry, it is easy to walk or bicycle along as the barge moves down the canal and through the locks. Eric’s planned hikes were much more ambitious, however, and he plotted courses out through the countryside that let us see things we would not normally find on our own. You’ll see what I mean in future posts in this series.

With passengers and crew all accounted for, we boarded our home for the week and were greeted with Non-Vintage (NV) Henriot Brut Souverain Champagne.

They must have seen me coming, as this is a favorite producer of mine. Champagne Herriot was founded in 1808 and is still a family-owned business. The Brut Souverain is made from a classic blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, but it tends to have a little more Chardonnay and a little less Pinot Meunier than a typical NV Brut, so it is a little lighter and crisper. This makes it a great apéritif. (Henriot, Inc., the parent company of Champagne Henriot, also owns several other important brands in France, Italy and Spain. We’ll see some of their other products before the trip is over.)

A great apéritif demands some nice hors d’oeuvres, so Chef Katy presented us with the first of many delicious bites we would have this week. First, plums and goat cheese on rye toast.

The crew had been traveling the same route, stopping in the same ports and exploring all the best sources of food for the entire summer. Katy knew just where to find some perfectly ripe plums, a soft creamy goat cheese and a rye baguette to assemble a simple, but tasty, bite.

The second dish was as simple and delicious as the first: fresh grape tomatoes with basil, olive oil and a balsamic vinegar reduction.

I knew right away that I was going to like Katy.

So there we were, docked in a small village in Burgundy, sipping Champagne, tasting delightful hors d’oeuvres and enjoying these views.

Definitely a “life doesn’t suck” moment.

By the time we finished the hors d’oeuvres the crew had delivered all our bags to our rooms. It was time to settle in.

If there is one thing that is less that wonderful on a barge cruise, it’s the size of the rooms. Now, mind you, there are no surprises here as you are able to see the exact dimensions and layout of the rooms online before you book a trip. Rooms on any boat are small, even on mammoth cruise ships. Barge boats can only be so wide and still get down the canal, so there are no Presidential suites here. Rooms have either two twin beds or one double bed. Each room has a private bathroom and shower, each of which is just big enough to stand in. Remember, however, I am a relatively big guy—6′ 2″ (188cm) and 230 lbs (104 kg); shorter, thinner people will find the rooms more accommodating. Sumo wrestlers might want to find a different way to travel.

If the physical space is, of necessity, small, the amenities were first class. There was always plenty of hot water, soap, shampoo, etc. Rooms were cleaned and beds made every day.  There was enough drawer and closet space for our clothes. The crew collected the empty suitcases to stow them out of the way, giving us more precious room in our suite.

The common areas, in contrast, are large and comfortable.

This is the main social area. Climate controlled and spacious enough for all the passengers and crew to hang out and not feel crowded. Wi-fi was (almost) always available, although sometimes when the ship was moving the signal was lost when we were between towns.

Did you notice the bar on the right?

The bar was well-stocked with soft drinks, water, wine and liquor, all available 24/7. We did not go hungry or thirsty on this trip! Here is the main dining table, which seated all the passengers comfortably and, with a little squeezing, passengers and crew for the Captain’s Dinner.

Notice the large windows that lined the lounge area. We often had lunch while the ship was cruising to the next port, and we could watch the countryside go by as we ate.

And what kind of vacation would it be without a hot tub and some rubber duckies?

Now that we were settled on board, we still had some time to walk around Tanlay and stretch our legs. Here is a gallery of images from this picturesque little town.

The most famous structure in Tanlay is the Chateau de Tanlay, which has a rich history and which I will write about in detail in the next entry in this series.

By the time we finished our stroll around town, night was falling and the town was pretty well closed up…

…and Chef Katy was hard at work in the galley…

…so we were all ready to eat!

Most dinners were served on board though, as you will see in a later chapter of this saga, we also had dinner in a local restaurant one evening. Most meals started around 7:00 pm with some light hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. Dinner was served around 7:30 pm and usually consisted of an appetizer, the main course, a cheese course and dessert. Local wines were served, usually a red and a white, and the cheese selection was a mini-education in cheeses from all over France. The menus for lunch and dinner were usually posted on a chalk board on the bar.

It was usually George who opened and presented the wines, explaining what each one was, where it was from and why it was chosen for that particular dish.

Since this was a cruise in Burgundy, most of the wines served were (drum roll please) Burgundies! If you know anything of Burgundy wines you have probably heard of Louis Jadot. One of the biggest producers in the region, they make everything from inexpensive whites and reds to some of the most expensive wines on the planet. Our first example was the 2011 Louis Jadot Ladoix Le Clou D’Orge Domaine Gagey. You may already know that Burgundy produces white wines (almost entirely from Chardonnay) and red wines (almost entirely from Pinot Noir). There are exceptions, the biggest one being the red Beaujolais made from Gamay grapes, but, when you see whites and reds from Burgundy you are probably looking at Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Wine names in Burgundy can be complicated, but they can also tell you a lot about the wine if you learn how to read them. I’m not going to do a course in this, but I will explain labels as we go. As mentioned, Louis Jadot is the producer of this wine. The grapes come from a vineyard named Le Clou d’Orge, which is one of a number of vineyards owned by the Gagey family (Domaine Gagey). This vineyard is located in Ladoix, which is, in turn, located in the Côte de Beaune region of Burgundy. There now, isn’t that easy? If none of that means a thing to you, don’t worry. I have been studying wine for almost 40 years and do not pretend to remember every producer, grape, regions and vineyard in Burgundy, let alone the rest of the world. In this case, the important things are simply Jadot (reliable producer) and White Burgundy (Chardonnay).

For the record, this is a wine that sells for around $50-60 (considered a reasonable price, as White Burgundies go) and is a very good example of its type. In 2013 it was still young, with lemon and apple aromas and flavors and enough acidity to make it crisp, clean and great with food.

So what shall we eat with this? How about a warm goat cheese salad?

Valeria and I love goat cheese, and this creamy chèvre served just warm enough to melt over a baguette toast point was delicious. Some toasted pine nuts, crisp greens and a light vinaigrette dressing and you have a fine start to a meal. Vinegar can be death to a wine, but Katy used a gentle touch in dressing the greens and the warm cheese and the wine embraced each other like young lovers.

For the dinner wine, we moved from the northern part of Burgundy to Beaujolais in the south. George served the 2002 Louis Jadot Chateau des Jacques “Champ de Cour” Moulin-à-Vent.

Once again, the name is a mouthful. Let’s sort it out. You already recognize Louis Jadot. The Beaujolais sub-region of Burgundy is further divided into 10 “Crus” or regions, each of which produces wines with a distinctive character. Moulin-à-Vent is a Cru. Chateau des Jacques is a vineyard within Moulin-à-Vent, and Champ de Cour  is a special selection of the best grapes from the vineyard, Once again, easy, right? ? Well, no, not unless you are a wine geek, but the important things to remember are: Louis Jadot = reliable producer, Moulin-à-Vent = a Beaujolais Cru, Red Beaujolais = Gamay grapes. Gamay generally produces a relatively light, very fruity wine that is often one of the first red wines that new wine drinkers enjoy.

If the name “Beaujolais” means anything to you at all, you almost certainly know about the big Beaujolais Nouveau party that happens every year in November. Aside from being made from Gamay grapes, Beaujolais Nouveau has little in common with our dinner wine. Nouveau is made by fermenting whole clusters of grapes, bottling them after a few days, and getting millions of cases in place around the world to be opened starting 12:01 am on the third Thursday in November. It is a fruity, quaffing wine that, to me at least, remarkable for the amazingly successful marketing campaign that generates so many sales and so much hype for a very ordinary wine.

The Chateau des Jacques is a completely different animal. With Nouveau, drinking it younger is always better. A good Cru Beaujolais, in contrast, can develop beautifully in the bottle. I have had some 10-12 year old examples that had evolved into something very similar to their Pinot Noir-based cousins to the north; that is to say, complex, interesting wines. Our dinner wine proved that point. Eleven years old when served, you could still taste just a bit of the fruitiness of the Gamay, but the wine had developed some of the complexity of a good Pinot Noir—black cherry fruit, dried flowers, light spiciness and earthy notes. A fine example of a style of wine I don’t get to taste very often.

The wine needed some food, so Katy presented Suprème de Poulet á l’Estragon (Chicken breast with leeks and tarragon sauce).

This is a dish that actually plays just as nicely with the full-bodied White Burgundy as with the lighter red from Beaujolais. I don’t know where the chicken was sourced, but I am betting it came from a farmer somewhere along the route that La Belle Epoque followed all summer. Cooking a chicken breast is one of those things that is so easy that it is hard. You can’t undercook it for health reasons, but, if you overcook it, it will be dry and flavorless. Katy nailed it. Crisp skin, juicy flesh and a delicious sauce with butter, meltingly tender leeks and the sweet, licorice notes of fresh tarragon. A little rice to soak up the extra sauce was all that was needed.

A cheese course after dinner is a European tradition that has become more common in the US. Valeria and I have never met a cheese we didn’t like—soft or hard, mild or strong, goat, cow or sheep—we love them all. We were typically presented three cheeses after dinner, each one described as to the type of milk it was made from, where in France it was produced and something about the specific characteristics that made each cheese unique. I should have taken better notes. Most of the cheeses were new to me and I just don’t remember them all. I do know we had Comté, which is made from raw, unpasteurized cow’s milk. It is is delicious when it is young and gets even better as it ages.

I don’t remember the details of the blue and goat cheeses, but they were good.

Finally, dessert: Coconut Macaroon with Chocolate and Raspberry Drizzle.

Yes, it tasted as good as it looks. Rich pastry cream, lovely, light coconut macaroon, raspberry purée and a drizzle of lovely dark chocolate.

That brought the first day of the cruise to a very pleasant close. Well, almost. We all sat for a while and finished the dinner wines, then most people drifted over to the bar for an after dinner drink as we got  to know each other a bit as we started our week together.

In the next installment of this series, we’ll take our first walk with Eric through Tanlay and beyond and also take a close look at the Chateau de Tanlay. Until them happy travels!

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

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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 and products described in this article.