Preparation

Our upcoming trip to boat in the Burgundy region of France will be our fourth European boating trip!  By now, David and I kind of have these trips down to a science!  (Or so we hope!)  The first, and most important steps have already been taken - selecting a route, a boat rental company, and a boat.

We wanted to try boating in France as this is the country with the most choices of routes, and we decided on the Burgundy region, mostly because it was fairly easily accessible from Paris.  We prefer either a circular route or a "one-way" trip.  This greatly narrows down our options as I think most of these boat companies prefer you to start and end at the same point.  However, we found a trip with some locks, but not an overwhelming number, and a chance to see many towns and villages without spending too much time on large shipping routes.  

On past trips, we have twice used Le Boat.  They make planning the trip and selecting the boat very simple....it can all be done on line.  One time, we used Locaboat, with which we were very happy.  On this trip, we have decided to try France Passion Plaisance, a France based company.  Since we were booking kind of late in the season, we needed to find an available boat that would meet our needs.  We prefer a slightly larger boat so we have enough room for ourselves and all our stuff.  Also, David, who will do almost all the "captaining" prefers a "flying bridge" boat - one that he pilots from outside, on the top deck.  He feels that he is best able to see all around and only drives from inside during inclement weather.  We have settled on the Linssen Vlet 1030.

This is a picture of the Linssen Vlet 1030

This is the layout of the Linssen Vlet 1030

As you can see, this boat has ample seating in the back so we can enjoy the ride together.  There is a sunroof to let in light and fresh air, and you can walk around the whole outside of the boat easily, which should help in tying up and going through locks.  In the layout, you can see two cabins, in the bow and aft, along with two toilets, but only one shower.  Shouldn't be a problem with just two of us.  There also appear to be two seating areas (the orange colored parts), one next to the interior controls and one by the galley (kitchen).  There aren't any pictures of the interior of this boat, that I have found on line.  Hopefully it'll be nice!