As a young twenty-something travelling through Europe I’m supposed to be sleeping in airports, slobbering on the window of an overnight bus between cities and roaming the streets with my overloaded backpack for hours because I figured I’d find a hostel when I got there. But in the words of Roger Murtaugh, “I’m too old for this sh#t.”
And frankly I’ll take where I am right now over that at any age: enjoying a warm breeze while lying deck of a canal boat as the summer sun sets over the French countryside (that’s my legs sticking out):
There is an immense network of canals through Europe including in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Belgium and even Poland. In France alone you can cruise along more than 8000km of canals and rivers. We’re restraining ourselves to just 43km.
If spending a week on a canal boat doesn’t sound like a typical backpacking adventure, well you’re right there. I doubt it is. But I’m not here with fellow backpackers. Actually, that’s a lie. They have backpacks. But they are also my parents. This is part of a family holiday. Growing up on a working farm, there was never much opportunity for family holidays. Every trip I remember involved visiting a grandparent – with some occasional adventures such as a trip to Queensland’s Gold Coast to visit the theme parks. So this holiday with my parents, sister and my sister’s partner, is, in a way, making up for that.
The Saint Christophe
Saint Christophe, our Pénichette 1107 hired through Locaboat Holidays, is our home and transport for seven days. We’re driving the boat ourselves and will also have to manage the locks along the way. The boat sleeps up to seven, although with just the five of us we don’t need to convert the dining table into a bed each night. We plan to self-cater most, if not all, the way. The boat has a small stove and oven, sink, fridge and freezer. While there will be several towns and villages along the way, we did a big grocery shop on the way to Agen, which should last a few days at least (I’m talking about the Heineken we’ve stashed under the steps near the steering wheel).
The route
There are so many possibilities in France, the most popular being the Canal du Midi, which connects the Garonne River at Toulouse with the Mediterranean. For several reasons (largely because we’re working this trip around several stages of le Tour de France) we’ve chosen a different waterway, starting from Agen in southwest France, about 80km southeast of Bordeaux. We’ll be travelling along the Canal de Garonne, which when linked with the Garonne River connects Bordeaux and Toulouse, and the River Baïse, which will take us to our finish point at Valence-sur-Baïse. From start to finish, the trip only takes a couple of days, so there is no rush. Some days we’ll only need to travel for a few kilometres so there is plenty of time to explore the area.
The life
After a quick tour and safety briefing and an impressive job squeezing our luggage and groceries into every crevice, we set sail from Agen. The locks on the canal close at 7pm and we don’t quite have enough time to make it through the first one on our route. so instead we cruise about 10km in the opposite direction. In the canal we can moor wherever we find space, so we just pull up, tie up and relax.
