Cruise French Canals by sailboat (Part 1) HOW ? Best Boat? Routes? Bridges?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
- Episode 7: What do you need to know before cruising the canals and rivers of France in a sailboat? Which sea port to enter the inland waterways? Which boat set up is best? Which route to avoid grounding or crashing bridges and tunnels? Which is the shortest, or longest route?
We had a thought - take a sailboat from Hull, England to the Mediterranean Sea through France, via Paris and some very small canals. Research material to prepare for this journey included websites, books, TH-cam and Facebook. In all of this we found lots of information scattered across the different platforms, searching unsuccessfully for one pivot point providing a central star around which all the planets fell into reliable orbit. We had questions; we wanted answers; and greatly appreciated the experienced postings and videos presented by like minded people. But, we felt there was a gap; where were the visual experiences linked with offering answers?
I'm not sure how this video will be received, if at all, by people with a desire to take a sailboat through the inland waterways however, this is our attempt to fill the gap we thought existed. If you have more essential, relevant questions that you're not able to find an answer to from the links below, then please ask and we'll try and answer it for you. The next video will answer the remaining 6 questions of the 12 we asked.
Here are the links to the information we found useful to answer the 6 questions in this video:
VNF Main Site: www.vnf.fr/vnf/
VNF Route Planner: www.vnf.fr/calc...
French Waterways Main Site: www.french-wat...
French Waterways Routes: www.french-wat...
European Waterways, best 6 canals: www.europeanwa...
Dutch Barge Association: barges.org/9-u...
Fluviatcarte: www.fluviacarte...
Fluviacap Route Planner: www.fluviacarte...
Editions du Breil: editionsdubrei...
Navionics: www.navionics....
Wildlings Sailing: • We Have A Problem... |...
Sailing Ruby Rose: • Living On A Sailboat I...
Sailing Magic Carpet: • How to CRUISE THE FREN...
Sailing Seabird: • RAFTED UP - Getting re...
Mast Transport: www.boat-loads....
Dunkerque storage: www.bleumarine...
TH-cam Music:
Blue Danube: Strauss
Can-Can: Offenbach
Thank you to all those people who helped us along on our dream journey - you know who you are and we are eternally grateful. The journey continues . . . - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
![French Canals: the most beautiful town we’ve seen [Ep 11]](/img/n.gif)
I have found myself in Sweden but have had an idea of spending a bit of time back in the uk on a canal boat.....since learning of the French canal system and getting to the Med, lm all up for that now... years off doing it but thats good preperation time. Now subscribed and will look at all your vlogs. Thanks.
Thanks for watching and we hope you get chance to live your dream!
JnS xx
Hi Jonathan and Sheenagh. Congratulations for the challenges you undertake and thank you for sharing them on TH-cam. Your videos are awesome. I focused on the LWD series, interested in learning from you everything possible about the French canals and I found them very helpful. Could you please tell me which is the guide book you always have in hand with detailed maps of the canals and the descriptions of each section? Thank you very much and thanks again. All the best. Juan.
Hi Juan, thanks for watching our videos and your very kind comment, we really appreciate it. I'm guessing you're preparing to explore the French Waterways and I have no doubt that if you do, you will fall in love with them as we did. We used Fluviacarte chart books for our journey but they are no longer published. What I recommend is this website which offers excellent advice and resources: www.french-waterways.com/
Let us know what you think and how you get on with the adventure!
Stay safe,
JnS xx
@@sailingoptions Hi Jonathan and Sheenagh! Thank you for such a quick response! Thank you for the information, I will research on the french waterways website. I am in an early planning stage but looking forward to moving to the execution phase soon. I am in Argentina. The basic idea is to buy a boat in the Netherlands and take it to the Med through France. Very similar to your plan, but considering a possible round Britain before heading south. I need to work a bit more on the detailed plan. Thanks again, I will keep following your videos. All the best, Juan.
We also travelled extensively throughout France and Northern Europe on our Motorbike for 17 years. Then as the bones got older we switched to a 2 seat Roadster fo the next 7 years. Now I have retired, we were looking of a new adventure and so we bought our first boat. Like everyone, we dreamed of taking her down to the Med but like Options, she only draws 0.8 metres and I was wary of long ocean passages, in addition, my wife is Autistic and isn't really up to contributing much by way of crewing the boat (preferring to do the Princess thing most of the time) So overnight passages are a bit problematic because I am basically single handed most of the time. We love France and so decided to do the Canals rather than the Med and your video is just what we need to help our journey along. I binge watch your trip making as many notes as I can in preparation, and I will be using you as a reference library as we travel. Keep the videos coming please, I need as much info as I can get planning our trip for 2024..
Hoping you had a good Christmas and now looking forward to planning your canal trip. Happy New Year
JnS xx
New to canal boat boating I found this video very informative well done
Thank you for watching Douglas and for your kind comment. We hope you're enjoying canal boating life 🙂
JnS
Amazing information!
We are so pleased that you like the content and thanks for watching!
Thank you, a really useful as I am planning to get to the Med. one question is how is it possible to travel the EU for longer than 90 days when sailing, anyone know?
Hi Coatsey, thanks for watching and commenting. I really hope you do get to the Med and whichever way you choose will be good. We loved the canals and rivers from Dunkerque. Later in our journey we applied for a Long Stay Visa. Watch our Video "Europe for 9 months?" Series 2, Episode 3 for information.
Stay safe and enjoy cruising!
JnS 😊😊
Here's the link to find the video easier: th-cam.com/video/0CPNj-9gUb4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=UP6BCQuGjLrRz5zV
Highly informative. Another great video
Thanks Patrick, glad you'll be up and about again soon.
EXCELLENT INFO
We are glad to help your planning Niels. Thanks for watching.
JnS
Great information! thanks for sharing :)
Hello @cliffjohnson5660, thanks for watching and commenting. There’s more information in videos on our channel page @sailingoptions and we hope you find them useful, or at least entertaining! Just a bit of harmless fun 😀
Stay safe and enjoy cruising
JnS xx
Thank you!
Thanks!
thank you fer posting.
Thanks for watching!
Excellent informative video. Thank you!
Thanks we’re glad to help out
Stay safe
JnS xx
Thank you, really useful info in a clear and concise manner, much appreciated.
Thank you Ray, very kind.
Thanks
Thank you for watching the video.
Stay safe
JnS
A great summary - most comprehensive I’ve seen to date, thanks. A couple of questions I don’t see on your list: are holding tanks required and what is the availability of pump out stations? How much have you used the internal helm station on the 115? Cheers David
Hello David,
So sorry for this late reply - I though I had responded already. Thank you for your questions and I have attempted to answer the first one fairly in episode 8. Regarding the inside helm, we use it when the rain is heavy and also we had a cockpit throttle failure to deal with once - the inside helm got us out of bother!
Thanks for watching.
Best regards
JnS
hi thank's for your video. I didn't catch wich dtaft you have with your sailboat. the canal Nivernais is realy a nice onr, i traveld there with a peniche. but even with a normal level of wgater we touchrd the ground.
now my question. i plan for 2025 or 2026 to bring our sailboat from St Jean des Losnes down the Saon and than the river Rohne. What where your expirience with a sailboat on the river. did the draft be an issue, are the ports easy to get in? we have a draft of 1.6m
kind regards, Eric
Hello @helderic thanks for watching and commenting. Indeed the Nivernais was a highlight of our trip. Our draft with swing keel up is just 80cm and we touched ground on a narrow section when a peniche passed, but not a problem for us. Watch this episode 23 th-cam.com/video/zK8p8yM5sTk/w-d-xo.htmlsi=i0mQDz9B-yzKNYQm to get an idea of our River Saone to Rhône experience. Episode 24 follows the Rhône to the Petit Rhône. You can watch the videos on our channel page. I hope you find them helpful.
Stay safe and enjoy cruising
JnS xx
Hello! Fluviacarte maps are impossible to find. Which ones did you use? Do you know of an alternative? Thanks.
@@carminedelrosso8825 thank you for watching our video and for your good question. You’re right - Fluviacarte have stopped publishing. Check out this website - excellent info and links to relevant charts.
Stay safe
JnS
www.french-waterways.com/waterways/canals-rivers-france/
How do people afford these adventures?
Hi Mickey, thanks for watching our video. I'm not sure how to answer this general question. People are different and have different ways of reaching a state of affordability. In our case we left school, gained professional qualifications, worked, saved and invested for 40 years before retiring - then started these adventures.
Best wishes, stay safe.
JnS