Cruising – French canals
Everyone loves the French Canals – or so it seems. For years I’ve been regaling my friends with all the thrilling sea voyages I’ve done, be it from Greece to France, from Portugal to the UK, or from the UK to Ireland. Most of the time they nod politely and say how wonderful. Mention the French canals, however, and their faces light up with interest and more often than not they’ll say they’ve “always wanted to do that”. There’s something about chugging through France with your masts down that seems to resonates with boaters and non-boaters alike.
I’ve been spoilt. I’ve been through them three times: once when I was five months old (north to south), once when I was 26 (south to north), and most recently to celebrate my 60th birthday (north to south). The first time, my parents ploughed up the Seine with a 50ft centreboard ketch with a 5ft 3in draught. It was the 1960s and my father had lived through the horrors of the Second World War, so taking a stupidly long boat down the French canals was a walk in the park by comparison. The second time, I bumped along the Canal de la Marne à la Saône on my own 32ft ketch with 6ft draught, heading back from Greece to the UK in the late 1980s. I was completely unprepared and my then wife was six months pregnant by the time
