All aboard for a French barging holiday. Photo / Le Boat Charente
It has to be one of the most authentic ways to see France, and it doesn’t take long to master. Richard Holmes enjoys the merits of a French barging holiday.
“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”
Mole and Rat may have been pottering about on a bucolic English stream but Kenneth Grahame could just as well have been dangling his toes in the Charente River of central France when he wrote The Wind in the Willows. Grahame certainly wasn’t wrong, for there are few finer ways to spend the sultry days of a French summer than exploring the country’s navigable rivers and canals on a barging holiday.
Leaving the crowded pavements and steamy subway trains of Paris behind, we – myself, my wife and our 7-year-old son – hopped aboard a high-speed TGV train heading southwest from the capital. Our destination: the Charente River and a week aboard a self-drive riverboat.
We’d hired a boat through Le Boat, Europe’s leading river cruise holiday operator. They offer dozens of bases on rivers across France, as well as seven other European countries, and Canada. In France, it’s the rivers of Burgundy, Normandy and Provence that attract most travellers but we’d chosen the Charente River for its combination of clean waters, charming towns and scenic countryside. Plus, at just three hours from Paris, it was an easy escape for a week on the water.
Which is how we found ourselves on the quayside at Jarnac, and after a quick trip to the local Intermarche for supplies, we were quickly aboard.
No prior experience or certification is needed to rent a river cruiser in France. Before departure, the excellent – English-speaking – Le Boat shore crew provides a thorough introduction to the inner workings of each boat. A brief “driving lesson” allowed me to quickly become comfortable with steering, turning and mooring the Mystique, our 47-foot floating home for the week.
Unlike the narrow boats traditional to English canals, the broad rivers of France allow for wider vessels, many of which offer no shortage of modern conveniences aboard. Depending on your category of craft, and your budget, you can look forward to air conditioning, onboard barbecues and rooftop sundecks. More modern boats also come with bow and stern thrusters, which makes approaching mooring sites a breeze.
With our supplies stowed and tuition out of the way, we had our first choice to make: upstream through the quiet upper reaches of the Charente to the medieval hilltop town of Angouleme? Or downstream past grand chateaux and scenic vineyards through the heartland of the Cognac region.
We chose west, downstream, and within half an hour were tackling the first of a dozen locks on our journey.
Compared to other French waterways, one of the charms of the Charente is that most locks – which control the height and flow of the river and allow boats to navigate safely – are still manually operated. Transiting through the lock is a straightforward process neatly explained in the onboard manual, and simply requires 20 minutes or so of spinning cogs and wheels to raise or lower the water levels in the lock. While it can be hot work in the middle of a summer’s day, it’s not overly strenuous and is a good opportunity to chat with other boaters on the river.
They also speak to the rich history of the river and why it’s such a worthy way to explore France.
The Charente starts life close to Spain and flows for 380 kilometres through pastoral scenery of farmland, vineyards and tiny villages. While today the locks are likely filled with leisure cruisers, these rivers were once the arteries of French commerce. For centuries boats on the Charente have taken fresh produce and barrels of cognac to the Atlantic port at Rochefort, returning with seafood and salt from the coast.
That means the river flows through the very heart of the towns and villages that sprang up en route. So instead of searching for some distant car park and pounding the pavements back into town, travelling by boat meant we could simply tie up at a central mooring – free of charge – and wander off to explore for a few hours.
That was how we filled our first full day of sightseeing in the iconic town of Cognac. Though we’d missed the annual Cognac Blues Passions music festival, the town was abuzz with energy as we wandered the cobbled alleys, marvelled at the 10th-century Chateau de Cognac and sipped well-aged spirit just steps from the barrel cellar. And then, it was just a short walk back to our boat to decide where we’d sleep that night.
While moorings in the towns and villages provide fresh water and a shoreside electricity connection and mean you’re just steps from the local restaurants, we preferred the country moorings situated on quiet stretches of the river. These are clearly marked in the excellent onboard manuals and offer secluded quays where you’ll have the sunset all to yourself.
Most of these moorings are also free of charge, although it’s first come, first served so if your preferred spot is taken, you’ll need to motor on to the next one. But, with the long evenings of a European summer, we never found ourselves caught short.
And so the days unfurled in a happy routine; each morning planning our day’s route over croissants and coffee, balancing time on the river with wanders through charming country towns.
Saintes was a highlight of the Charente, where we explored the Roman Arc de Germanicus and admired the Gothic architecture of the Saint-Pierre Cathedral. The Marche Saint-Pierre also delivers the most remarkable fresh market on the Charente and we left carrying shopping bags bulging with local cheese, pastries, fresh peaches and a carton of plump summer cherries.
Another highlight was the quaint Dompierre sur Charente where we munched on pain au chocolat outside the 11th-century chapel. At Chaniers – famous for its Sunday morning oyster market – we tied up the boat and walked a short way outside town to admire the seven arches of the 17th-century mill house. Today, completely restored, Le Moulin is home to an acclaimed restaurant popular with day-trippers.
And at Saint-Savinien we discovered the famous stone works – churches across Europe are built from Saint-Savinien stone – and meandered through this charming village of quiet squares and leafy parks.
It was also where we turned back upstream. While some rivers allow for point-to-point journeys, perhaps the only downside of the Charente is that it’s a there-and-back itinerary. But the Charente took on a new look headed east and allowed us to tick off the towns we’d missed on our way down. And with a newfound confidence in steering the boat, we tied up in quiet eddies and navigated upstream of Jarnac for our last night on the river.
Handing back the keys to the Mystique we were sorry to be stepping ashore, headed for the crowds of Paris once again. A week on the Charente had given us a taste for holidays on the waters of France and we knew we would certainly be back for a little more messing about in boats.
For more things to see and do in Charente and beyond, visit france.fr/en
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