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Barging through France!

I have written a couple of times about my desire to try barging; that is, taking a small barge through canals.  Bill and I have been on several cruises, but they’ve all involved sailing on large bodies of water.  A barge cruise is different.  It’s slow paced and the focus is more personal.

I’ve been interested in barging for years, but I think this month’s trip to Burgundy kind of sealed the deal for Bill and me.  I feel pretty certain we’re going to book a barge cruise soon.  I’ve looked at two companies that offer barging.  One is European Waterways, a British company that offers barging in several countries throughout Europe.  The other is French Country Waterways, which is an American owned company that only offers barging in France.

I have received a lot of literature from both companies.  At this point, I think I’m leaning toward booking with French Country Waterways, mainly because of their emphasis on food and wine.  Bill is a big cheese lover and French Country Waterways provides them in abundance.  However, I must admit that European Waterways has tempted me with its stunning videos and broader range of places to go.  Also, I think European Waterways is a bit less expensive.

Although I have been wooing Bill with videos and talk about barging, I think what might have sold him is the brochure we got from French Country Waterways last week.  He sent me an email to tell me it had arrived and I told him to have a look at it.  Naturally, he was very impressed by it… kind of the same way my mom was impressed when I had a brochure from Hebridean Island Cruises sent to her.  She had originally meant to book a cruise for a week and ended up doing two weeks on the Royal Crown river cruise.  I’ve actually been wanting to try river cruising too, even though they tend to cater to people a lot older than Bill and I are.

So it’s a choice between European Waterways, which goes to France, Ireland, Scotland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and England…

 


Or French Country Waterways, which does Champagne, Burgundy, Loire, Alsace, and Lorraine…

 

The choice is going to be difficult.  Even if we choose French Country Waterways, which goes to fewer places, I am so tempted by each of the itineraries.  What a wonderful problem to have!

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Big cruise ships vs. small ones…

Tiny SeaDream 1 next to a gigantic P&O ship in Antigua…

 

My husband Bill and I have done seven cruises, six of which were on very small ships.  Our very first cruise was on Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas, which is one of their oldest and smallest vessels.  I think Vision of the Seas carries about 2400 people max, which makes her pretty small for a Royal Caribbean ship.  Compare Vision of the Seas to Royal Caribbean’s enormous Oasis of the Seas, which carries over 5000 people, and Vision of the Seas seems positively dainty.

Bill and I enjoyed our first cruise on a big cruise ship, but we didn’t like the huge crowds and nickel and diming that went on all the time.  Though there’s plenty of do on a big ship and it’s easy to escape the crowds if you are so inclined, we determined that we liked the idea of small ships and all inclusive cruising better.  So we tried SeaDream Yacht Club and, to date, have been on three SeaDream cruises.  Either of SeaDream’s mega yachts only carries 112 passengers at a time.  So the staff gets to know your name.  So do the other passengers.

Later, we tried Hebridean Island Cruises, which is an even smaller ship.  Only 49 passengers are aboard at a time.  That means even more personal attention and even more inclusiveness.

Bill and I had a great time on our most recent cruise, but once we disembarked, I couldn’t help thinking I’d like to try another cruise line.  There are several I’m interested in.  One I’ve been wanting to try for years is Un-Cruise Adventures, which is an American line.  If we hadn’t moved to Germany, we might have cruised with them this year instead of Hebridean.  I’ve also been wanting to try Seabourn for a long time.  Azamara has kind of piqued my interest, too.  So has Paul Gauguin Cruises, though I doubt we’ll be trying one of those until we’re back in the States.  It takes way too long to get to Tahiti from Germany!  None of these cruise lines have ships that are super huge, but most of them are smaller than anything you’d find on a mainstream line.

Some people love the really huge ships with many restaurants, shopping venues, waterslides, rock climbing walls, Waverunners, and the like.  Me?  I like a ship that has really good food, all inclusive pricing, and excellent service.  I also like ships that don’t pressure me to tip.  One thing I like about Hebridean is that they operate on a strict non tipping policy.  SeaDream also doesn’t pressure passengers to tip.  Instead, those who want to tip are encouraged to donate to the crew fund.  The only exception is when you use the spa, where tips are expected.

Don’t get me wrong.  When I go out to eat or get personal services, I tip.  I have waited tables before and understand how it is, especially in the United States.  However, I find tipping rather awkward.  I never know how much to tip or how to go about doing it gracefully.  I would rather cruise lines (and restaurants, for that matter) pay their people appropriately.  I know it’ll probably never be popular practice in the United States not to tip because servers like being in charge of what they can earn.  But I think the people who employ servers should be paying them and not putting that duty off to the customer.  I thought this when I was a server myself, too.  I would seriously rather pay higher fares than deal with tipping.  I remember being on Vision of the Seas and noticing the video about tipping on the ship’s television channel.  I thought it was really tacky.

Another thing I liked about the smaller ships is that a lot of times, what you pay up front is what you pay.  At the end of a SeaDream cruise, we usually have a bill.  It’s never been as big as it was when we cruised on Royal Caribbean.  When we’ve been on Hebridean Princess, we have never had a bill at the end.  We don’t even give them a credit card when we board.  I like that.

I’m not sure when our next cruise will be.  Bill has said more than once that he wants to try river barging.  I am definitely up for that.  That means an even smaller boat.  I think most barges only carry about a dozen people.  Tipping is also expected and you don’t tend to cover as many miles on a barge.

There are drawbacks to small ship cruising.  For one thing, smaller ships don’t tend to be as stable as the big ships are.  You can end up getting pretty seasick on the small ships.  I never have on Hebridean Princess because they mostly stick to the lochs, which are usually pretty calm.  They also anchor at night.  I have gotten very seasick on SeaDream 1 on more than one occasion, often in the middle of the night when they move to the next port.

Another drawback is that it can be hard to escape people who get on your nerves.  If you happen to be on a cruise where a large group has booked, you can end up feeling a little like an afterthought.  Big groups on small boats can overwhelm the ambience a bit.  If there’s someone you clash with, it can be hard to avoid them.  On the other hand, the small ship also allows for very personal attention and service.  For instance, I got a big kick out of one of the bartenders on Hebridean Princess going out of his way to make me a Brandy Alexander.  That probably wouldn’t happen on a huge ship.

Anyway… my guess is that the next cruise we book will be a barge somewhere in France or perhaps Ireland.  Things will get even smaller!  But I haven’t ruled out Seabourn or another SeaDream cruise. I may even get crazy and try another line.  We’ll see.

Tiny SeaDream one in the foreground and a huge Celebrity behind it.  Actually, this photo makes me want to book a SeaDream cruise…  

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The French learn how to become more “Touriste” friendly…

Just read an interesting article about French tourism.  It’s basically about how the people of France are learning to embrace the many tourists that flock to their homeland every year.  Though people love France, apparently, they don’t spend that much money there.  And the folks in charge of French tourism  have figured out it’s because some people may not feel comfortable there.

Things have changed in France over the past few years.  Some stores in Paris, located in “tourist zones”, have started staying open on Sunday to accommodate tourists who may only have a day or two to stay in town.  And the French are starting to realize that tourism can be a great source of jobs in an economy that is lagging due to a recession.

I know my first impression of France wasn’t very good.  It was June 1st 1995 and I was stuck at Charles De Gaulle’s very noisy and confusing airport for about twelve hours.  I found the people who worked in that airport to be singularly unhelpful and unpleasant.  Though I had heard about how “rude” the French were– and we had hosted a couple of teenaged French boys when I was in high school who also gave me that impression– that first experience in the airport turned me against France.

But then I went there in 1997.  I arrived by train and had a delightful time, starting with a stop in Nice and continuing with visits to the Loire Valley, Tours, Amboise, and of course, Paris.  I got to see the countryside and met some people who were very nice and friendly.  Indeed, I visited several countries during that trip and did not think the French were particularly rude or unpleasant.  I’ve been back to France several times since then and can honestly say I love France.  My husband, Bill, who used to disparage France’s military, loves it even more than I do.  We may be visiting France next, when we have the chance to vacation again.

I will say that CDG is still a pretty unpleasant airport.  Bill and I flew there in 2009 for a whirlwind trip to Paris and found it very hard to navigate and quite uncomfortable.  Just finding the bus into the city was hard and then once we got on the bus to the city, the trip into Paris took longer than the flight from Germany. Word to the wise.  The train is a lot more efficient.  We took the train from Paris back to the airport and it was a lot quicker and more pleasant.  We even had some fun accordion music from a traveling busker.

Besides Paris, Bill and I visited Strasbourg, Briancon, Nancy, and Marckolsheim.  We’ve enjoyed every visit and plan to go spend a nice “proper” vacation in France sooner rather than later.  I’m hoping for the Champagne region or perhaps Burgundy.

Anyway, I think it makes sense for France to accommodate tourists more.  However, I hope that doesn’t mean France starts adopting habits that alter their national character.  I doubt that would ever happen, but one never knows.  I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing that most businesses are closed on Sundays.  I don’t know that businesspeople should feel forced to be closed, but it’s not a bad thing to have a day of rest.  And I think the whole point of travel is for people to experience new cultures and learn how to adapt.  It’s good when cultures accommodate visitors, but not to the point at which the visitor doesn’t get an authentic experience.

As I’m writing this, I was inspired to take another look at European Waterways’ Website and Bill said the more he sees of the videos posted there, the more he wants to barge.  I don’t know if or when we will, but it’s now officially on the bucket list.

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Ireland? or France?

So I think Bill and I are definitely thinking we’d like to go back to Europe for our next trip, whenever it may be.  We are definitely interested in barging or perhaps doing a river cruise, even though I read with some dismay about troubles river cruisers have been having because of flooding in the Danube.  I’m not linking to any particular thread on Cruise Critic.  Just go there and have a look if you’re interested.  There are a few folks who have had their river cruises suddenly turn into bus tours.

I do worry that if we did a river cruise, we might be a bit on the young side.  But then, we were among the youngest on our Hebridean cruise in November and it wasn’t really a problem.  In fact, I would love to do another Hebridean cruise, even if it’s a river cruise.  I hope they offer them next year.

Barging would be different because only a few couples go at a time and the barges go so slowly that you might be able to walk faster.  You run the risk of being on a barge with people you don’t like, of course… or perhaps they won’t like you.  But you also get a lot of personal attention and the chance to really get into the local scene.

European Waterways has put out some very enchanting looking videos.  We were looking at Ireland for next year because I haven’t really been there and Bill hasn’t been in almost 30 years.  And Ireland is where his “people” are from.

However, France is barging country and Bill loves France.  He loves the wine, the cheese, and the cuisine…  I like France too.  So we’ll see what happens…

I would hope I’d be less likely to get seasick on a barge, too…

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The champagne bucket…

The champagne bucket…

 

The champagne bucket pictured above was a wedding present from one of my husband’s relatives.  In the past, we’ve used it for chilling wine.  Last year, it became useful for another purpose.  We now use it to help us decide where we’ll travel next.

Bill and I have many places on our bucket list.  It can be difficult to make a firm decision about where to go next.  Last year, when we decided to go to Italy and Greece, we did so with the help of the champagne bucket.  Since we had a pre-booking for SeaDream that we needed to use, I wrote down the names and dates of four cruises that were in our price range and occurred at a time during which Bill could more likely get off work.  I cut the names into small pieces and folded up the papers, then put them in the champagne bucket.  I shuffled them around and got Bill to choose.  The May 11th Rome to Athens cruise won!

We’ve taken to doing this whenever we’re too overwhelmed with choices and can’t decide what to do next.  It’s sort of exciting to pick vacations this way, since it’s kind of reminiscent of Germanwings’ blind booking deal.  We’ve done “blind bookings” with Germanwings three times.  Basically, what it means is you pick a group of cities you wouldn’t mind traveling to.  You pay extra to eliminate any cities you don’t want to see.  Pay your fare.  Then you find out where your next vacation is!  It’s a lot of fun to travel this way, especially since most European cities are a treat to visit.  We saw Barcelona, London, and Munich by doing blind bookings.

The champagne bucket is somewhat different in that it’s not really binding when we make our choices.  But it’s still exciting to find out where we’re going next instead of trying to pick one place over another.

I broke out the champagne bucket the other day because we were talking about where our next trip might be.  Bill chose “river cruise”, which means that if Hebridean Island Cruises offers river cruises on Royal Crown in 2014, we may be aboard.  On the other hand, a lot depends on what happens next year as Bill makes his transition out of the Army and into the civilian sector.  We may decide to just stay home next year or go somewhere stateside.

Of course, we’re also very attracted to the concept of barging in Europe.  We were leaning toward Ireland, but after watching some intriguing videos of barging in France, we may opt to go there.  Bill loves France, even if he is very Irish.

I think it would be a dream come true if Bill got another job in Europe…  I can dream, can’t I?

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Barging in Europe…

As if I didn’t need any other temptations, now I’m tossing around the idea of taking a barge cruise through Ireland or possibly France.  I had already been watching French Country Waterways’ Web site for some time, but their prices seemed a bit out of our reach.  They also only do cruises in France.  I would love to do a French river cruise sometime, but I think I might want to visit Ireland first, since I have no real memories of ever going there (if, in fact, I did).  I lived in England in the 70s, but I was  a wee lass at the time and don’t remember everything about the experience.

But then I started looking at European Waterways, which offers French cruises, but also has barging in Ireland, Germany and Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium, Scotland, and Italy.  Barging is different, really, than regular cruises.  The vessels are very small and intimate, with only about a dozen people or so at a time, sometimes more, sometimes less.  And you travel at a very slow pace… slow enough that you could get off the barge and walk if you wanted to, easily keeping up.  It’s all inclusive and informal, yet the food is supposed to be very good.

Of course, yesterday, I got an EOB from my dental insurance provider.  The fuckers denied my claim for payment for my cleaning and exam.  I think it’s bullshit and plan to raise hell about it.  Met Life Dental sucks, though.  It actually makes me miss United Concordia.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand…  I showed the video to Bill and he was delighted.  We might just do this.

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