June in Gritworld - an update from Providence

Needless to say it's been hot here in Gritworld (aka Providence, RI); but thank the gods not as hot or as fiery as other parts of the lower half of North America. The one thing Rhode Island can be assured of, according to the New York Times, is an increase in serious flooding along the northeast in coming years -- global warming! gotta love it!

On to more immediate matters: Susie and I are both well; life continues to treat us with a kind look and gentle touch. Susie's business continues to flourish at her own pace and on her terms; she's done eight classes already and is now open two mornings a week for retail. She's one lucky tarte to be sure.

My work is good and steady -- although I continue to be amazed at how many people take photos wanting to share them with a seemingly boundless immediacy and yet with little notion of preserving them. Odd.

Food continues to be one of our lifesavers here in Rubetown -- and we find ourselves occasionally haunting (and re-haunting) the same favorites again and again.

Tini's on Washington Street Downcity:

Rabbit and gnocchi

Zucchini fries

Homemade pasta with fresh peas and mushrooms

And Broadway Bistro on Broadway (duh) on the West Side:

Ribs n grits

Sweet potato croquettes

Hope Artiste Village, where Susie has her shop, sponsored an outing for its tenants to McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket to see the Pawsox play the farm club for the Atlanta Braves. It was a beautiful day, sitting under the bleachers in the shade watching the Red Sox farm club go to town.





As you know we had to cancel our barge trip to the Canal du Midi scheduled for this fall. The good news is that an acquaintance of ours and her partner will be barging in nearly the same locale (Le Somail in the Languedoc) in early September.

Their plan is to fly into Toulouse, train to Carcassonne, spend a couple of nights, pick up the boat -- a Nicols 36 -- at Le Somail, cruise for a week and then spend a couple of nights in Toulouse before flying back to the US. I hope to have glowing reports to post here later this year -- as for us, well we're still hoping and planning on a self-drive barge trip next year so stay tuned!

Siena, mia paese
Ever since our first trip to Italy in 1994 when we discovered an incredible peace of mind inside the walls of Siena, Italy, we couldn't get enough of that wondrous place -- and so, we returned again and again during subsequent years. In the late 1990s I  created an information website to document our trips there and to help others find their way to our special place.

The news, good or bad I cannot say, is that I have sold the www.sienaitaly.com name and website to a couple in Florence. They will continue to use my photos and some of my content until such time they see the need to move on. The reason for selling was simple: I just couldn't keep up with the fast changing information -- and that, I felt, was unfair to visitors seeking reliable, accurate information. So it's gone from me but not from my heart. Non mai!

Over the past three years or so we've made the East Bay Bike path our place of serious exercise -- walking, scootering and biking.  After being closed since last year, the northern section of the East Bay Bike path reopened at last, with freshly paved surface and new fencing.





Life is good -- but life is also short. Make the most of it.

Ciao for now.

Refund from Locaboat

As is typical in today's world of electronic money transfer when it comes to taking your money it happens almost instantaneously -- but when it comes to getting it back, say in the way of a refund it can take many days if not several weeks.

That's not the case with Locaboat. Once I asked our agent Roger Van Dyken to initiate a refund, it was just a few days before our credit card was, well, credited.

A good lesson though: no matter how far ahead of your booking date you cancel your Locaboat reservation, you will pay a hefty "administrative" fee, no matter what (€`150). Unless you take out trip/travel insurance, the premium for which might be larger than the fee.  In all fairness to Roger strongly warned us about the importance of taking out trip cancellation insurance but we've never done it before and so. . . . Say goodbye. . . for now:

Barging in France - two views

A quick search on Google for barging in France will turn up more than 200,000 results -- but the same search on Amazon will return just 17 results. The top hit is Hugh McNight's Cruising French Waterways. Although the latest edition was published in 2005, McNight provides an exhaustive amount of information on each and every canal in the French waterway system. Broken down by canal, each entry also includes a bit of historical background as well as a thorough guide of what to look for along the way.

McKnight provides the boating traveler with a good foundation in deciding which canal to travel and what one can reasonably expect to see and discover along the way -- and no unpleasant lock surprises since he provides all the necessary information here as well for each canal.

When I first started looking into barging in France, earlier this year, after eliminating the many hotel barge cruises offered, I found myself gravitating to those websites often maintained by expats living aboard a converted barge in France. One of those sites, Bill and Nancy's turned me on to the Dutch Barging Association -- as I had become somewhat curious about this whole subculture -- and I soon found myself swimming amidst a sea of fascinating characters from around the world, men and women who had sought to find themselves or peace of mind or whatever by living abroad a long boat on a canal in France. Fascinating.

And one name that kept popping up -- particularly on the DBA website, was Roger Van Dyken's book Barging in Europe. Although he now resides in the American Northwest, Van Dyken and his family lived aboard their own barge and motored thousands of kilometers on the canals and rivers of Europe.

While McKnight provides a good, all-purpose guide to the French canal system, Van Dyken explains the details of owning and operating your own converted barge. His approach is therefore geared toward potential barge owners as opposed to canal travelers. But whether or not you're in the market to settle aboard a boat on a French canal in your golden years, this is a handy little guide to how to drive a boat on a French waterway.

Both books are well-written, lucid and easy to understand -- and chock full of well-resented and probably necessary information. I bought both and intend to use them both.

Two big thumbs up for me.

Next up: So exactly where, when and how?

Two ways to go barging in France

To go “barging” in France is really a fancy way of saying boat rental, also referred to as “selfdrive.” With the exception of Locaboat’s unique penichette design, modeled after the traditional French commercial peniche (photos below), nearly all of the “self-drive” barge programs are really powerboats.

Locaboat's Penichette

Peniche

There are really only two ways to “barge” in France. You can either pay someone to do it for you or you can do it yourself. That’s it.

If you go with letting someone else motor you around the canals, what you’re really doing is renting a floating hotel room complete with 24-hour service, food, wine and even escorted to trips through the countryside. All for a price, of course: costs per person on the small exclusive “luxury hotel barges” catering to 6-20 people begin at $2,000 but are typically much, much higher (the fewer the berths or cabins the higher the price per person). For example, cruising for six days on the Canal du Midi with European Waterways will cost anywhere from $4,300 to more than $6,000 per person (September 2012 pricing online).

But, if you want to be pampered and not worry about canal locks, mooring lines, where to go next or what to fix for dinner, and if you have the cash, this is the way to go.

If you’d rather do things yourself, if you’d prefer a more hands-on experience traveling French canals and rivers, then the self-drive approach is right up your alley. Renting a boat that sleeps 4-6 people for a week will cost about anywhere from $1,500-3,000, not including food. And you have to drive the boat yourself, of course.

We intend to drive ourselves, so if you’re interested in hotel barging I suggest you jump into the Google bar and head straight for “barging in France.” If your interests lie in self-drive canal cruises in France, then stick with us – over the next coming weeks and months I will post details of my research and, hopefully end with a great experience to share with the rest of you.

I figure the worst that can happen is we will want to buy our own barge . . .

So, here’s the plan so far: a week cruising the Canal du Midi in southern France, possibly in August but probably in early September of 2012. OK, that much we know.

Next: Just who is crazy enough to rent a boat costing €100,000 to a guy who doesn’t know how to drive one?