What distinguishes these hotel barges from their peers is space. While other barges of similar size usually accommo- date 24 passengers, Afloat in France craft are designed for just four to twelve guests and offer a floating country house ambiance. They are a world apart from the modern cruisers that ply the rivers of Europe conveying endless holidaymakers in a package tour experience. Created from the hull of a commercial barge built in Holland in 1962, Amaryllis was converted to luxury style in 2001 and decorated by some of the most respected names in France and Italy. There are four generously-proportioned twin/double cabins with large baths or showers boasting L’Occitane Verveine
damp, hung with dripping ferns, moss and wildflowers rooted in the cracks. Some of these locks even retained their antique wooden gates and had to be cranked open and shut by the exertions of keepers, whose adjacent cottages were the very confections that chocolate box covers are made of.
djacent to the canal banks are towpaths lined with fishermen – motionless stoics who rarely look up from their poles and seldom return a wave. Paved with smoothly packed gravel, these towpaths make ideal biking trails and I often pedalled my shiny bicycle to the nearest village. Other times, I would disembark at one lock and climb board at another having strolled alongside the meandering river past hedgerows and fields of pillar-box red poppies. Occasionally, a smaller pénichette would pass, yellow butterflies fluttering across the deck, monsieur smoking his pipe at the helm, madame preparing lunch on the stern. To experience the life of a canal is to escape the
A
world of airports and motorways and reconnect with a world in which nothing moves faster than a duck. Two decks high and 129ft long, Amaryllis is one
of five boutique barges, or péniche-hôtels as they are known locally, operated by Afloat in France and owned by Orient Express Hotels, Trains and Cruises.
“There was a CATHEDRAL STILLNESS, streams of light slanted down as THE EARLY SUN UNWRAPPED THE DAY FROM TISSUES OF MIST”
unguents. A beautifully-appointed lounge suffused with elegant armchairs, wood panelling and soft fabrics leads to a soignée dining salon. On deck, there’s an outdoor dining table, terrace and 13ft square pool. A crew of five tend to the whims and caprices of the eight guests and are instrumental in engendering a floating house-party mood. Getting to this sequestered corner of
France is an essay in stress-busting logistics. A Eurostar whisks you from St Pancras International to Paris’s Gare de Nord, where a smartly-dressed chauffeur awaits to drive you south in an air-condi- tioned Mercedes people-carrier. After meeting my fellow bon-viveurs
over a glass of refreshing Lechere Blanc de Autumn 2011 I WORLD OF CRUISING 29
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100