Fantasy Canal Trip
25 October 2019
by Terry Spencer
For quite a few years, I had fantasized about renting a boat on a canal in France. While wintering in México, this plan began to take shape. Working with LeBoat and communicating back and forth with Elisa, I made arrangements for a one way trip on the Canal du Nivernais in central France. We booked seven days, six nights in the middle of September. With time at each end of the canal trip, we planned a few days in Bourgogne first and a few days in Paris at the end.
We boarded a jet in Seattle and, both literally and figuratively, flew through the night. Leaving at about 1 pm in Seattle on a Friday, we arrived at 8 am on Saturday, after 9 hours on the flight. The entire night passed in just a few hours for us.
In Paris, via train and metro, we made our way to the Gare de Lyon and awaited the TGV train to Dijon. The train travels up to 200 mph on conventional routes. The speed was deceptive, until we were next to a highway and saw how fast we were passing the cars going our direction.
French trains were clean, fast, relatively inexpensive, and frequent. We enjoyed all of our train rides. It took a while to figure out the train stations and where to go. This was especially true for using the Metro later in Paris, which involved finding one’s way through a warren of tunnels to the correct platform.
So a transfer at Dijon and 30 minutes later we were in Beaune. We immediately took a nap in the charming Hotel de la Poste, just outside the medieval city walls. Later we found a restaurant for a dinner and glass of local wine before returning to catch up on our sleep.
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