Locaboat recommendations and smoking concerns

Not sure about the boats .. but most hotels do not allow smoking in rooms anymore.. only on patios or balconys.. I imagine its the same with the boats.. seems simplest solution would be to simply email boat company and ask ..
Smoking indoors restaurants is also forbidden.. but smoking on paties still allowed, which means if you do not like smoke you should choose to sit inside.. well away from often open to outdoors seating sections.

Not everyone smokes anymore.. but still there are enough that to a person sensitive to it.. it seems smoke comes to them by bad luck!

j-here's a link to a previous post with some info on boats on the canals. You can enter various search terms at the top of the page and see a few other posts, too. Also here is a link to a RS article that touches on the topic. From what I've read here in the past, barging doesn't sound difficult to me, but there have been cautions about the fact that you do move quite slow, fine for me and maybe you too, but worth noting. I'd love to try it one day, good luck!

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/to-the-west/canal-boats-in-france

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/burgundy-wine-barging-and-beyond

If you are concerned about smoking it must be that you are considering a "hotel" style barge trip, where you are a passenger and a crew does all the work, and you share with several other passengers?

All my experience in barging has been in England, either by ourselves or with friends, on narrowboats, but I have several friends who have barged on hire boats in France. In their case they each ran the boat which is much easier than running a British narrowboat. Instead of the helm being at the stern, the helm is under cover in the centre of the boat, usually, and all or virtually all of the locks are worked electrically or by lockkeepers. In England virtually all locks are hand worked by the hirers, and some can take some welly indeed.

If it is just the two of you on the boat the cigarettes shouldn't be a concern.

Nigel,
My concern was based on my experiences in some French hotels about 15 years ago. The windows wouldn't open and the room smelled as if people had smoked two-packs a day in them for he past many months. I don't want to hire a boat that has been smoked in constantly for the previous six-months. Out intention is to operate the vessel ourselves but I don't want to be contractually committed only to arrive to a boat that still has a smoke cloud in it. Just not sure what the standards are. I will write Locaboat and ask, but I sent a question to them a week ago and still have no reply which also gives me some concern.

Thank you for your thoughts.

j&j

Page 34 of the Captain's Manual shows all boats are equipped with 2 ashtrays.

We rented a DIY Penichette from Locaboat several years ago in southern France, and it was one of our most fondly-remembered adventures ever. We look forward to doing it again with our granddaughters in a few years.

We picked up our boat in Agen, went down the Garonne Canal for about a day, then onto the River Baise. It was a round trip -- we returned the boat in Agen a week later. We loved this route. We were there in mid-September, and seldom saw any other boats. The river was quiet, lined with trees and quaint little towns that were such fun to visit.

We are non-smokers and did not notice any smoking smells on the boat. The boats are so small that I don't think anyone would smoke inside anyway. And I would suspect that these boats are rented mainly by tourists, not French people, although that's just a guess.

If you decide to do this (which I heartily recommend), here are some tips. Before picking up the boat, we went to the store for provisions but did not buy enough. One night, everything was closed in the little town where we stopped (because it was Monday!) and we couldn't make it to the next town before the locks closed for the night, so we had apples and stale bread and wine for dinner. So stock up, just in case.

My husband had a little experience with boats, so he was the driver and I was the navigator and lock opener. The only place we encountered a lock-keeper was on the double-locks going to the River Baise. There, we were given an electronic key-card, which I wore around my neck from then on. Opening a lock was a simple matter of climbing to the top and inserting the card, to start the mechanism. I will admit that for the first few locks we were very apprehensive and wondering what in the world we had been thinking! But after a few days we were totally comfortable and enjoyed the whole experience.

The town of Buzet, which is near the beginning of the River Baise, has a wonderful restaurant where we had one of our best meals ever in France. I checked last year for a friend, and it's still there, with rave reviews on Trip Advisor.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Charlene,
Thank you! Your post is exactly what I was hoping to see. There are several different routes that depart from Agen, do you remember the name of the one you did? From Art to Armagnac as well as Treasures and Middle Age Feasts, look interesting because they indicate "Gastronomy" in the brochure (if we're inFrance, we ought to eat well). There are a couple of other one-week cruises that we could consider as well. Any thoughts from people that have done this would be appreciated.

Regardless, you all have convinced me that this is something we shouldn't miss, so it is now a given that we'll do one cruise or another. Thank you so much, and the same to everyone else that has contributed to this particular discussion.

[My only concern is that this could become addictive 8^)]

Looking forward to celebrating our 40th on the canal!

jim & jane

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did! The route we took started in Agen, went to Valence-sur-Baise, and then returned to Agen. You can see the route here: http://www.locaboat.com/en/destinations-circuits-en/france/canal-boat-south-west/gascogne-lot-baise-tarn.html We didn't do the whole trip; we could easily have gone as far as Valence-sur-Baise, and gotten back to Agen within the week. But when we got to Condom it was so darned cute we decided to stop there and spend a day.

I don't see this exact trip on the Locaboat website. They seem to be covering less ground nowdays.

They show a round trip, In good King Henry's Country, which is a round trip Agen>Agen but it ends at Moncrabeau. We spent the night in Moncrabeau and went one town further the next day, to Condom, in about 2 hours. It was one of our favorite towns.

Art to Armagnac goes from Agen to Valence-sur-baise in one week, whereas for us this was the round trip schedule. Maybe they add some activities to fill this up??

There are pros and cons to a round trip, but we enjoyed revisiting familiar places. We absolutely loved this stretch of the River Baise. If you pm me with your email address, I can send a few photos .... wish we could post them here!