Westworld Alberta

vichyssoise, Charolais carpaccio and duck confit. Two types of French cheese and wine accompany each meal. Tonight we try Comté and Valençay cheeses, and a 2009 Madame Edmond Chalmeau Chardonnay from Chablis, a region we'll visit in a few days. At 11 p.m. or so we trundle off to our cabins, well fed and anticipating our first day of cruising. The next morning , we filter up to a bright autumn sun and a breakfast of fresh pastries, fruit and strong coffee. The guests are mostly American, along with a retired librarian from Australia, his wife and the chef's wife, Libby. We set sail at 9:30 a.m. from ChâtelCensoir, a tiny settlement a few hours southeast of Paris. Signs along the canal announce the maximum speed: 8 km/h. Cyclists pass us at a steady clip, sometimes waving. Though we see the occasional château, the landscape is mostly farmers' fields and quiet villages with only handfuls of residents. As I drink tea on the deck, the 50-metre-high Le Saussois cliffs appear. The rock faces are craggy, making this a favourite climbing spot for Parisians, and a visual anomaly among the fields of cows and wheat. That afternoon, full from chef Stuart's boeuf Bourguignon, we dock near the town of Mailly-la-Ville (pop. 609) and take a bus to Château de Bazoches, a turreted mansion near a road built by the Romans. The French government now owns many of the country's châteaux, but Bazoches belongs to a count and countess who live in one wing and open the rest for tours. In the great room, we see armour that belonged to the château's most famous owner, Marquis de Vauban, a military advisor to Louis XIV. We arrive back at the barge around 5 p.m. "Tomorrow, we're taking the Louis XVI cruise, and you know what they did to him," Neil says before dinner, making a cutting motion across his throat in reference to the beheaded 18th-century king. Throughout this trip, we will cruise through more than 30 of the canal's 122 locks and under countless bridges, often while relaxing on the deck. But this leg, toward Vermenton, has low bridges that skim the top of the barge – hence the "Louis XVI" nickname. Our pilote Francisco (top) The Luciole cruises into the lock at Vincelottes; (middle, left to right) one of the barge's cabins; a chef displays a dish prepared for the passengers; travellers of every age jump at the chance to go barging. 44 W e s t w o r l d p42_47_Barging.indd 44 >> february 2013 courtesy Hotel Barge Luciole 13-01-16 11:49 AM

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