Farewell Travels - July

Not until you waken to the purr of a barge motor, not until you look out and see the water level at your window, not until you have your morning coffee as you drift through a field of yellow flowers…can you imagine what barging in Burgundy is like.

A self-proclaimed non-cruise-type person, I surprised myself big-time while spending the better part of a week on the Amaryllis, one of Orient-Express’s five peniche-hôtels that make up Afloat in France, a company that takes travelers by barge on the canals and rivers of France.

I took this trip at the end of April, arriving in Dijon on an incredibly soggy day. A very efficient member of the staff met me and my fellow travelers (four of us total) at Le Creusot train station and drove us to St. Léger, where we were greeted by five additional staff members--all delightful and extremely articulate. Holding umbrellas above our heads, and guiding us around voluminous puddles along the Canal du Centre, they got us to the gangplank happily dry.

I’ve always been fascinated by the barges, which are often used as houseboats in Paris. There they are tied up along the banks of the Seine. They always seem to have a lot of earthly pleasures you associate with putting down roots including massive amounts of plants and pets. But at the same time, they stand for freedom, lives without ties. I remember reading Anaïs Nin’s novel, The Four-Chambered Heart, which is a love story built around a houseboat on the Seine. It was named Nanankepichu, for “Not really a home.”

Well…I have to say, if there’s a word that means “not really a hotel”, that’s what I’d call the beautiful barge I instantly fell in love with. The Amaryllis wasn’t just another room-key access place to stay. For me, it was a suspension of all things real, a magical reprieve, providing access to the heart of France.

The Amaryllis (pronounced to rhyme with Fleur de Lys, a sister ship), is exquisite. In addition to ample deck space with a heated plunge pool and al fresco dining area, there’s a living room and interior dining room plus four state rooms accommodating up to eight guests (along with kitchen and staff quarters). The state rooms—which I have a hard time calling cabins because they’re so big—are luxuriously decorated with both contemporary and antique Louis XVI and XV furniture. The bathrooms are marbled, sexy and…plenty big.

Once on board, umbrellas away (and actually, never came out again), we settled into a lovely routine floating along very slowly, periodically descending into locks. The locks were like commas in a sentence every day, pausing just enough for us to step out onto the towpaths and carry on alongside the barge by foot or bike to work off the many gougère cheese puffs we consumed (one of Burgundy’s classics).We’d catch the barge and crew at the next lock…or possibly several locks later (they can be quite close together or several miles apart).

Every evening, after a phenomenal meal—all chef’s originals—accompanied by local wines, the captain would tell us the plan for the next day. There were a handful of excursions planned around lavish meals on board, which broke up the days nicely. We toured the Château de Germolles, country estate of the Dukes of Burgundy, dating back to 1380. We drove along the Route des Grand Crus where all the most well known vines are grown in Burgundy. We stopped for a tour and tasting at Gevrey Chamberlain.

As we silently moved along the canals, we passed through Monet-like scenery, sometimes in canopies so low, you could reach out and touch branches. We saw Romanesque churches, stone villages festooned with blossoms and ivy, and of course, French men and women strolling arm-in-arm, even biking with baguettes in satchels straight out of Jules and Jim.

We also cruised on the River Saône and spent a good chunk of time exploring Beaune (pronounced Bone), which is the capital of Burgundy. In addition to lots of shops filled with one-of-a-kind French accessories that make a powerful fashion statement once back in the USA, Beaune has a number of outstanding restaurants. They feature the Burgundy specialties such as oeufs en meurette (eggs poached in red wine), snails baked in the shell with buttery garlic, frogs’ legs, rabbit sautéed with Dijon mustard and boeuf à la bourguignonne. One of the most celebrated attractions in Beaune is the Hospice de Beaune, which was built in Flemish style in the 1440s. Another is a maze of wine cellars underneath the city belonging to Maison Joseph Drouhin, where the King of France used to store his wines.

For our last night, we moored right in Chalon-sur-Saône, which gave us a chance to explore this very French town of about 70,000 people, its antique shops and magnificent Cathedral square. What made the experience all the more special was knowing that we’d be returning to our home on the river and have one more chance to be gentled lulled to sleep.

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