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I know it’s taken a little time to update my blog, but the month of July was very busy, with very little downtime. We meet Margaret and Martin in Paris along with friends from the UK, Martyn and Nicola. Without a moment to catch our breath, our five days were spent exploring and shopping in… Read more

Our mooring in Amsterdam was at Sixhaven which is across the Noordzeekanal from Amsterdam Central station. Easy access to the city is via the walk on walk off free ferry that runs 24/7 every few minutes. I even found a respectable supermarket with a huge liquor outlet on our side of the river. (Dirks for… Read more

One of the joys of owning a barge is the ability to share our adventures with friends. Peter often comments that he never knew he had so many friends, but of course, as with a lot of his comments, this is very tongue in cheek. With the Covid lockdowns over the past few years not… Read more

Just as in 2019 we turned around leaving France and retraced our steps northward towards the Netherlands. Jo enjoyed our company and the river for 5 days leaving us at Fumay to train it south to Provence . As usual there were still many discoveries to be made. Our next stop on leaving Charleville Meziere… Read more

Finally leaving Auvelais with our new travelling companions we continued along the commercial waterway still going downhill to Namur. This city, featuring a medieval citadel is at the confluence of the Sambre and the Meuse and was established as an important post in Celtic times. The Meuse has its origins in France and flows through… Read more

In an effort to stop my blog being hijacked by the skipper and am going to devote a little time to explaining to the barging novices the mode of travel on the canals. The skipper has decided my audience wants a bit more than descriptions of our stopping places along the way. So here goes.… Read more

We finally arrived back at our Joie de Vivre after an epic journey via Singapore to Frankfurt then a train to Brussels and onto Brugge. The 8 hour stop over in Singapore was a trial and the flight to Frankfurt was an hour longer than expected, due to our path being diverted around Ukraine. Landing… Read more

I always feel a little sad leaving our Joie de Vivre to face the winter months alone, however with the cooler weather starting to bite it is time for these sallows to fly south. After our little jaunt on some of the canals in central Belgium we returned to our winter mooring at Coupure in… Read more

The beauty of our aqueous home is that you can choose to stay in port or venture to new harbours further afield. After a few days of cleaning and maintenance (varnishing and painting), then visits with our friendly Brugge bargees group the weather turned wintery, so we stayed put for a few weeks. But then… Read more

After a pretty ordinary summer, with more days of rain than sunshine, with the arrival of autumn the sun decided to grace us with its presence. Our first stop down the canal fron Verne, was Diksmuide, which being located in a pastoral area, is famous for its butter. In 1914 the Germans overran Belgium hurrying… Read more