No visit to Burgundy is complete with a stop in Beaune, in the heart of the famous wine region. From the renowned Clos de Vougeot to the equally famous Montrachet vineyards, the Côte d’Or (”Golden Hillside”) is a must-see for any serious wine afficionado.

Besides the vineyards, Beaune is famous for its Hôtel-Dieu (Hospices de Beaune), a hospital founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin. This building, with its beautiful multi-colored tile roof, is now a museum. The interior has been restored and gives a fascinating glimpse of how sick people were cared for, in one large room, with rows of curtained beds - each holding two patients! - along the sides. There is also a pharmacy, with old bottles labeled with the names of various herbs and other substances used as medicines. In the kitchen, with its massive fireplaces and cooking pots, you can see figures of nuns working to feed all the sick people.

The charitable institution now cares for the sick in modern hospitals, but its work continues to be supported by the proceeds from the sale of wine from its vineyards. Every November, a large charity wine auction is held in Beaune’s covered market. In 2008, 544 barrels were sold, 450 of red wine and 94 of white wine. 

If you have a few days before or after your Burgundy cruise, you may want to check into the gorgeous Hotel le Cep and tour some wineries, indulge in the local wine and cuisine, and just stroll around the quaint old town of Beaune.

Do you enjoy drinking wine and other alcoholic beverages?

Most cruise packages include water, tea and coffee, but beyond that, policies vary. If you don’t drink wine or other alcoholic beverages, you can usually save money on a cruise that doesn’t include these or only includes wine with dinner, for example.

The usual options, depending on the cruise, are:

1. Wine with dinner only, all other alcoholic drinks extra  (soft drinks may or may not be included with meals)
2. Wine with lunch and dinner, all other alcoholic drinks extra
3. Wine with lunch and dinner, plus open bar between meals

Most cruises include at least one or two wine tastings of local vintages, but if you’re really interested in wine, look for a wine theme cruise. Many of the smaller luxury barges offer these for group charters. We even offer a “Wine and Chocolate Cruise” in the Chablis region of Burgundy. This cruise is open to both individuals and groups in the spring and fall.

Do you want to do a lot of sightseeing or just relax?

Most cruises include at least one sightseeing excursion per day, and these are usually included in the price of the cruise. However, it’s a good idea to find out if any of the excursions are “optional,” i.e., you have to pay extra for them. In addition to wine tastings at local vineyards, excursions can range from visiting a village farmers market to touring nearby chateaus and cathedrals.

If you just want to relax, you can skip the excursions, of course. And with a barge charter, your group can decide to do things like additional wine tastings instead of sightseeing.

Do you have a special interest?

Besides wine cruises, you can take a cruise focused on a special interest, like garden cruises, golf cruises, bicycle cruises, etc. Most of these require putting together a group for a charter, but this can be arranged for groups as small as four people.

As you can see, there are a lot of choices available for cruising in France, from larger boats that cruise the Seine and Rhone Rivers to small luxury barge-hotels that travel the networks of canals and smaller rivers in Burgundy, Provence, Champagne, the Loire Valley and other regions. So, whatever your interests and budget, you’re sure to find the perfect cruise that will provide a lifetime of wonderful memories.

One fairly rare but interesting feature of canal cruising in France is crossing over a river on a “pont-canal” (literally “bridge-canal” but sometimes translated as “navigable aqueduct”). A pont-canal is like a regular bridge except that it carries water instead of a road. As your barge floats across the bridge, you can look down at the river below - quite a sensation!

In Burgundy, I took some pictures of the Pont-Canal de Briare, a beautiful bridge across the Loire River. This structure is 20 feet wide and nearly a half mile long. The water is 7 feet deep. The bridge was completed in 1896 by Gustave Eiffel, whose famous Eiffel Tower in Paris was built in 1889. The nearby Canal de Briare was built much earlier (between 1604 and 1642) as part of a massive network of waterways connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel.

There is another pont-canal in the south of France near Beziers, where the Canal du Midi crosses the river Orb. In that location, the Orb riverbed is at the bottom of a deep gorge, and its waters flow fast and furious on their way to the Mediterranean. Originally, a series of 9 staircase locks were built to bring boats down to the level of the river. This did the job for a while, but the lower two locks kept being flooded by the river. So, a “navigable aqueduct” was built to bypass these two locks. (The seven others are still in use today and are known as the Fonséranes locks.)

These are a few pictures I took on a trip to  Burgundy. In my opinion, this region  is one of the most picturesque in France: softly rolling hills covered with vineyards and lush, verdant countryside dotted with hundreds of “happy cows.” During my visit, I toured the Canal de Bourgogne just outside Dijon (among other places). The stretch of canal I explored, along the river Ouche, has to be one of the most peaceful places on earth. Except for the occasional luxury barge-hotel  gliding lazily up and down the slow moving waterway, the area belongs to the locals. Going through small and quaint villages such as Veuvey, La Bussière and Gissey-sur-Ouche, you feel like you own the place. No crowds there and no rush hour either. To this rural serenity, add the picture-perfect pastoral scenery and you’ll get the idea… a great place to get away from crowded cities and busy highways! I took the first four pictures near a lock at Gissey-sur-Ouche, the fifth one in the Nuits-St-Georges area and the last in Auxerre, in the Chablis wine region.