6 7Voice of the Westcountry

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H appiness is a path, not a des-t i n at i o n … The ancient quotedreamed up by some philo-

sopher thousands of years ago stillrings as true today as it did when thelikes of Homer were taking to theseas. Which is just as well if you areholidaying on a canal barge, becausegetting there isn’t the point of theexercise at all.

Passing gently and slowly throughbeautiful countryside is what themission is all about – and you may aswell add luxury and a little decadenceto the experience to make the journeysomething you will remember forye a r s.

If you are roaring through CentralFrance on a motorway you might getthe feeling that the countryside,formed of great endless plains, is a bitboring and bleak. But many of youwill know that it is not monotonous atall – slow down or stop and you willdiscover scenic river valleys andforests dotted with villages so his-toric that they make our own me-dieval honeypots look like modernhousing estates.

I have known this fact about Cent-

In the lap of luxuryMartin Hesp takes to the river to explore central France

ral France for years – what I did notknow until recently was that the verybest way to see and immerse oneselfdeep in some of the most fabulouscountryside in Europe was to jour-ney through it by boat.

The good ship L’Art de Vivre star-ted life as a Scottish lumber carrier,but she has been carefully trans-formed – according to the Britishholiday company European Water-ways – into a floating celebration ofthe Burgundian “good life”.

I can vouch for that – I have rarely,if ever, been on a more luxuriousjourney – which is why this won-drous experience isn’t exactly cheap.The L’Art de Vivre’s four recentlyrefitted cabins have modern en-suitebathrooms and there’s a delightfulsaloon where you dine and generallyloll about – and better still is thesizeable sun-deck where you can re-lax with a glass of wine as you glidethrough the pretty Burgundian coun-t r y s i d e.

T here’s even a new spa pool nearthe bows in which I recently spent anextremely pleasant hour sippingChablis – near Chablis – while being

pummelled gently with hot bubbles.There is no getting away from it,

the L’Art de Vivre style of barging isall about opulence – indeed, it is justabout as far from the boat’s originallife of lugging lumber as you couldimagine. In the old days people didn’twant to touch things with bargepoles– with European Waterways you’d doanything to get hold of one of theirbargepoles. Indeed they refer to theboat as a “hotel barge”.

There were just six passengersaboard for the week when we jour-neyed north up the Burgundy Canal(she takes a maximum of eight) andwe were looked after and generallypampered by a crew of four.

There was a young French pilotwho had his work cut out guiding thebig barge through seemingly im-possible locks, sometimes with justhalf an inch to spare; there was aneven younger hostess who served ushigh quality wines, among otherthings, with great charm and know-ledge; there was the captain or tourguide who drove us around in a lux-ury minibus so that we could spend afew hours every day exploring rather

than just lolling about (an English-man with immense historical know-ledge of the region), and last butcertainly not least there was a masterchef who turned out multi-courselunches and dinners, the likes ofwhich you’d only normally find attop-end restaurants.

We were doing European Water-w ay ’s “classic cruise in Burgundy”which, in our case, meant doing itsouth-to-north. This began with usbeing conveyed from the meetingpoint in Paris down to a village calledChevroches about 60 miles south ofAuxerre. We were lucky – the weatherwas fine and as soon as we’d left themotorway we began to realise wewere in a very lovely area indeed.

It became ever more beautiful, sothat by the time we reached the L’Ar tde Vivre tucked away in a silent,sylvan, river valley, we felt a worldaway from the French capital, eventhough the journey had only takenthree hours. If the road trip had allbeen a bit of rush, then time was nowto enter a kind of joyous, un-rushed,go-slow mode.

We were welcomed with goodchampagne and excellent canapésmade by the chef – and this enjoyablerepast was to set the tone for theweek. Great food, great wine. And, asit happened in our fortunate case,great company. My wife and I in-stantly got along well with thewealthy young American couple whoamazed us by saying that they wereon their honeymoon – and with themore elderly English couple who’dbeen on many European Waterwayscruises before.

By the time we’d unpacked and

settled into our cabins it was time forpre-dinner drinks – and then camethe mighty meal itself, beautifullycooked by a great chef who hailedfrom the Channel Isles, which meanthe was a master of French cuisine butalso knew how to adapt it to broaderinternational tastes. During an en-tire week on the boat we were notpresented with a single dish that Idisliked. On the contrary – I likedthem all.

Our go-slow journey took usthrough beautiful countryside past

Chevroches in the Yonne Valley, toeventually arrive at Lucy-sur-Yonne.

Aboard the L’Art de Vivre you aremaster of your own slow-moving des-tiny, in that you can do what you wish.You might prefer to sit in a com-fortable recliner watching the coun-tryside go by, or you might feel likewalking or cycling all those caloriesoff by tootling up or down the towpath(good bikes are provided).

You are also offered a trip each dayin the minibus – and, in the interestsof seeing more of this beautiful area,all six of us took the opportunitythroughout the holiday. On this firstday we saw the only rain to fall allweek – so it was a timely chance tovisit the amazing Chateau ofBazoches, whose many illustriousvisitors included Richard the Lion-heart. The stately homer was later

Trip details■ European Waterways is the largest luxury hotel barging company inEurope, offering six-night cruises on a large fleet of fully-crewed bargesalong the canals, rivers and lakes of France, Italy, Scotland, England, Irel a nd ,Holland, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg.■ Prices for a six-night cruise aboard hotel barge ‘L’Art de Vivre’ are from£2,750pp in a twin/double en suite cabin, including all meals, wines, an openbar, excursions and local transfers. Charters are also available.■ To find out more about European Waterways: Tel: 01753 598555 Website:w w w.go b a rg i ng .com

remodelled by Maréchal Vauban whowas a find a French answer to Is-ambard Kingdom Brunel.

The next day we tootled our splen-did way north again fromLucy-sur-Yonne to Le Saussois – andnow we were able to take the minibusup to one of the most remarkable andhistoric villages in all of France.Vezelay, perched on its hill-top withviews for miles around, has morehistory in its little finger than manyhuge cities can boast.

Much of it is centred on the

Romanesque Basilica of St MaryMagdalene, which houses the femalesaint’s remains. Scratch the ancientstone surface in Vezelay, and you areinstantly into a Dan Brown typeworld of religious secrets and con-spiracy theories.

Could Mary Magdalene have had achild by Jesus? And if she did, did themale line go on to become the ancientKings of France? Some people like tobelieve all this – and if you like suchstuff then Vezelay is the capital ofsuch mystery. Richard the Lionheartset forth from this place to go onCrusade, not once – but threetimes…

All very interesting, and exhaust-ing – so time for another big dinneraboard the L’Art de Vivre. The nextday is Wednesday, which means it’smarket-day in the beautiful 14th cen-

Above, grotesques of Vezeley; below, a meal on the barge

tury medieval village of Noyers. Sooff we go to buy in provisions for thechef – then return to lunch aboardand while away an easy afternoonwatching the countryside get a littlebit more dramatic as it approachesthe cliff-lined region of Saussois.

That evening, after mooring atMailly-la-Ville, we were driven todine at one of the best auberges in theregion. The journey was worth it, therib of beef was sublime. And perhapsI needed a trencherman’s portion ofgood red meat to be ready for themorning after – which meant beingdriven over to Chablis for a wine-tast-ing at the family-run winery ofJean-Marc Brocard.

Chablis happens to be one of myfavourite wines – partly becauseshellfish happen to be one of myfavourite foodstuffs. As everyoneknows, the two go hand-in-won-d ro u s - h a n d .

And what you learn in thisworld-famous village is that the localsoils are full of fossilised shellfish –indeed the geological term for therock there is Kimmeridgian – wh i chrefers to the Dorset village of that

name, famous for its high grade whitech a l k .

I don’t know about you, but I find itmind-boggling that a type wine todaycan go so well with one type of food-stuff – i.e. shellfish – because thevines that make it are grown on bil-lions of crushed and fossilised shell-fish which perished 150 million yearsa go.

I love synergy. And I love coun-tryside. And the next day we tootledthrough plenty of lovely scenery aswe made for our final destination ofAuxerre, admiring vineyard cladslopes and limestone escarpments aswe went.

A turn around the town, a vast andsumptuous captain’s dinner, and thatwas it.

The next morning it was all overand we returned to being mere mor-tals. By which I mean – we were nolonger served upon hand and footwhile doing nothing much at all butmoving slowly – suddenly we wereback in the real world of help-yourselfand dashing to catch trains.

Even slow-motion dreams eventu-ally have to end somewhere.

Time was now to enter a kind ofjoyous, un-rushed, go-slow mode

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