Nov 17, 0. Casting off from the quaint French town of Chateau Thierry, it was immediately apparent our barge trip would be at a different pace — literally and figuratively — from other cruises. Onboard with me was only my mother, one other couple, and the Captain and chef. Mother and son bonding on a barge! We were spending the week barge cruising in France through Champagne onboard the built barge Johanna. Marketed by Barge Lady Cruises , she spends almost the entire summer cruising between Chateau Thierry and Reims, and can accommodate six passengers when full.
Her Belgian owners, Capt Kris and his wife Patsie, who is the chef-deckhand-housekeeper, purchased her in and after a lengthy refit, began running formal cruises a few years ago. The built Johanna barge in France. Subscribe to our monthly small ship cruise email. Subscribe to QuirkyCruise. Both my mother and I found the idea of a week on a barge idyllic.
As someone interested in all things maritime, a barge trip had long appealed to me with its slow progress through twisting interior waterways and close passes of idyllic towns along the way. Surely sailing on a barge, tying up every night in the center of a city, would be the ultimate destination immersion by watercraft. Following the at times snaking canal system. After only a few hours onboard Johanna , we quickly fell into her unhurried pace.
Traveling between three and six miles an hour, and with no organized activity when onboard except eating, there was little else to do underway except sit on deck, read, talk or watch the countryside go by. And for us, that was just dandy; time underway on the barge ended up as the preferred way to spend the day for both us and the other couple onboard. A fellow passenger enjoying the slow and easy life aboard a barge cruise. Almost every morning we would be underway by 9am for approximately four blissful hours before arriving at our evening mooring after lunch.
We passed scenes of children fishing along the riverbanks that echoed Mark Twain, joggers getting their morning exercise, farmers tending their fields or commuters leaving home for work. Poking along the waterway felt intimate; trees and countryside were almost within reach, and there was time to take it in, to listen and to see the passing country. Some days, we gazed at bucolic landscapes with vineyards reaching to the river. Other days, the river passed through a dense layer of trees and thick shrubbery, its sharp twists and turns leaving us wondering what was around the next corner.
