11th - 17th October 2015

Bike and Barge cruise with France à Vélo

The penultimate week of the 2015 season is upon us, and with it come many extremely successful and enjoyable variations to our normal schedule. This week we worked in partnership with a local business called France à Vélo, that run cycling tours all across France, so we spent the majority of the week with the very welcome and magnificently beautiful Charlotte, lovingly nicknamed the slave driver by our fearless passengers. She lead the cycle tours from the front, braving the weather and the hills with her group following closely behind. The combination of barge and bike worked seamlessly, as we cruised, Charlotte would muster those willing to take on the days cycling and lead them via the scenic route to rendezvous with our tour guide Anna at the days tour location, be it Chablis, Auxerre, Bazoches, Noyers or Vézelay. Unfortunately and rarely the weather wasn't entirely on our side this week and the temperature plummeted, but that didn't put our brave adventurers off, everyday the group got on their bikes, wrapped up warm and prepared for anything, and set off on their way. We look forward to cruising with France à Vélo again next season, and can envisage a long and very close relationship with this excellent organisation.

Smiles in the sunshine on the first day of our Bike and Barge cruise

We were also fortunate to welcome aboard not only 9 very funny and entertaining guests, one of whom, Lynne, joined us for her 3rd cruise and the 1st for 8 years! But also we were thankful to have with us a grand total of 3 Lileys including our lovely mastermind Penny and her 2 eldest sons William and Arthur, joining us for the sake of logistics and just generally being a helpful and constantly amusing bunch. Additionally we had long time friend of Penny and the barge, and very welcome guest Ant, complete with his ever present camera equipment, so hopefully a new video should be with us soon!

Finally I have another birthday to announce, that of perhaps the barges most popular resident, our most extraordinarily talented chef Marc, turning 24 this weekend, Happy Birthday from all of us here!

Burgundy on a glorious day on Bike and Barging