Me voilà de retour! It’s been a while — roughly 168 kilometres (104 miles), 40 locks, and one tunnel since our last update. From Compiègne, we turned onto the River Aisne, leaving behind the commercial highways of the Seine and the Oise, which we’d been navigating since mid-July. Here, we entered a much more appealing…
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The most memorable segment of our next leg of traveling was navigating the Seine on our own barge through the heart of Paris. This was something Howard had been enamoured with since he first watched the Godfreys’ video (when they still owned CoP) documenting their trip through the city in 2025. He didn’t realize then…
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It is still unseasonably warm in France. Temperatures have dropped from the low 40s Celsius to the slightly less suffocating mid 30s (roughly 105° to 95°F), and while still not ideal, those temperatures are manageable for some canal cruising. For our first foray, we left Auxerre to head a little over 10 km (6 miles)…
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We finished our boat training in the UK and headed off to take possession of our new floating home just as a ferocious “Omega” heatwave was enveloping Europe. The average temperature in Auxerre, France, in June is 23°C / 73°F. When we arrived on June 18th, it was 38°C / 100°F! More on that later;…
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Oh my, the last 42 days have passed in a whirlwind of picture-perfect cityscapes and crumbling fortresses. We began our 80-day lease with Renault in Calais, France, and since that day have spent at least one night in 17 different cities and whiled away afternoons in many more. This is the second time we’ve leased…
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For the last three years, when the days grew shorter and the mercury began a slow slide down the thermometer, we’ve made a beeline for the Iberian Peninsula, alternating between the coasts of Spain and Portugal. This year we opted to spend a month on the French Riviera, specifically the resort town of Juan-les-Pins, nestled…
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