My Favorite Barge Cruises In France (Updated 2026)
My favorite barge cruises in France, from Burgundy and Alsace to the Camargue and the Oise — personal picks from an expert who has hosted these trips since 2012.
Beyond The River Cruise: Spending Five Weeks In France & Spain
Five weeks in Europe — river cruising, barging and walking parts of the Camino — that accumulated into something resembling a life rather than a vacation.
Slow Water: Seven Days On CroisiEurope’s Daniele
Seven days, 52 miles, three waterways — and a crew that made this Besançon-to-Dijon barge journey one of the finest we’ve experienced in more than a decade of hosting trips in France.
Barging & Biking Through Burgundy At Exactly The Right Speed
On a canal barge in Burgundy, slow is not a limitation — it is the whole point. With 54 locks between Besançon and Dijon, the barge sets its own pace, and the towpaths invite you to match it on foot or by bike. Ralph Grizzle explores what it means to move through France at exactly the right speed.
Notes From Daniele: Dispatches From Our Barge On The Canal du Rhône au Rhin
Our first excursion came early morning. But I’d been to the Saline Royale before — it’s worth every minute — so this morning I decided to stay on board as Daniele made her way along the Doubs. While the others were on tour, I enjoyed slow travel along the river and canal with just the trees, the melodies of songbirds, and Sylvie, our sailor, taking it all in with the quiet contentment of someone who has the best job — and knows it.
Besançon: Where Our Barge Through Burgundy Begins
Along the Promenade de l’Helvétie, on the banks of the Doubs, a bronze statue commemorates a man most river cruisers have never heard of: Claude Dorothée Marquis de Jouffroy d’Abbans. In 1776, just upriver from here, at Baume-les-Dames where the Cusancin joins the Doubs, de Jouffroy ran the world’s first experiments with a steam-powered boat. The attempts were imperfect, but they led him, in 1783, to a successful voyage up the Saône in Lyon — the moment historians mark as the birth of steam navigation. France honored him a century later with that statue. There is something fitting about beginning a barge journey in the city that honors the man who made it all possible.