Westworld Alberta

DEEP BURGUNDY The French countryside unfolds dreamily on a cruise of the Nivernais Canal by Craille Maguire Gillies T he first thing we receive when our group of 14 steps aboard the river barge Luciole in the Burgundy countryside is a flute of kir royal made with Crémant de Bourgogne, the local sparkling white wine. The second is a set of sailing instructions from our captain and guide, Neil, a friendly Englishman with a sun-weathered face. "In your cabin you'll find life jackets. You won't need them," he says as Stuart, our chef for the week, passes out canapés. "If we sink, you won't even get wet." The canal is shallow – little more than a metre deep throughout. Neil raises a brass bell. "This is Isabel," he says, drawing out the syllables so it sounds like "is a bell." Over the next seven days this bell will ring for meals and before each excursion. We toast our good fortune and settle in. At 34 metres long, the barge has a cozy eight cabins below deck. Mine is spacious, with two twin beds, a shower and toilet, plenty of storage and porthole windows that I'm warned to keep shut in the locks (fish have been known to jump through (clockwise from top) The barge Luciole cruises the Nivernais Canal; passengers get into the vacation spirit en route; a cyclist rolls along the towpath next to the canal; a statue of French novelist NicolasEdme Rétif in Auxerre. courtesy Hotel Barge Luciole p42_47_Barging.indd 43 the windows and land on beds). On deck, bicycles are lined up for impromptu trips along the towpath, the paved trail beside the canal where beasts of burden used to walk, pulling non-motorized barges and rafts. The Canal du Nivernais, a 174-kilometrelong channel that connects the Seine Basin to the Upper Loire River, was originally built to float timber to Paris. Construction began in 1784 and was completed in 1842, though it stalled during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. The canal played a role in the region's trade for more than 200 years, with barges carrying stone, timber and grain into the 1980s – though by that time freight transport on the canal had declined, due to competition from railways and a lack of maintenance. Pleasure boating was still in its infancy when, in the mid-1960s, a freight vessel named Ponctuel was converted into France's first hotel barge, Palinurus, bringing new life to the canal. John Liley, the English editor of a boating magazine, bought the vessel in 1985, rechristened her Luciole – French for firefly – and introduced his family to the business. (Son Will joins us as a matelot, or deckhand). At 7 p.m., Neil rings Isabel and we congregate in the dining room for the first of many four-course meals – dishes such as Westworld >> f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 3 43 13-01-16 11:49 AM

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