Recent content by saskia

If you have a French registered boat, you need a French permis, which is quite expensive and time-consuming to obtain. If your boat is British flagged and SSR (like mine), the ICC and CEVNI endorsement is just fine.

Got mine a couple of weeks back. No problem. vnf.fr

This looks like a fantastic resource for us ditch crawlers. We are contemplating a cruise from St Jean to Bordeaux next summer (and back) and I'm sure we will be making full use. Thanks and much appreciation for all the effort that has obviously gone into this project.

Guilty m'lud as charged. I lurk and enjoy, and feel I get to know the characters and regulars. Trouble is I live in the South of France and keep my boat in Burgundy (though we have wintered in Holland this year). Grew up sailing on the Thames at Pangbourne and might return one day - could be...

There's an ok marina just before the confluence of Saone and Rhone, with a tram stop at the end of the harbour that takes you to the centre.

We went through the MarneSaone last month and also found the weed a nightmare, as well as algae in places. Endlessly emptying the strainer and at times rodding the inlet pipe while drifting in mid-canal. Be warned!

Check out Currencies Direct. I use them regularly and find their rates very competitive.

Corsica?

Never seen a mobo with boards, though sailboats often rig them - all to do with shape I guess. I've been cruising the canals in Saskia - about 35 ft - for a dozen years or so and find a ball fore and aft and a couple of sausages rigged horizontally mid ships does just fine.

We did a circuit last summer from St Jean de Losne, up the Rhone-Rhine canal to Mulhouse, then down the Rhine to Koblenz, back up the Mosel to Nancy, and through the Vosges back to the Saone. We kept a blog for friends and family, which you can see here: http://nwrparsons.blogspot.fr/ It was a...

Saskia is a rather modest 11m Dutch steel Vledt style cruiser based in St Jean de Losne. We will be going down the Rhone and cruising the Canal di Midi this summer, expecting to get back end-August/early September. She is quite comfortable for two - hot shower, fridge, washing machine etc. and...

Saint Jean de Losne is very central. I have been based there for a dozen years, check out H2O and Blanquart online. The rates are posted.

Indeed there is currently no requirement to have a holding tank in France, and very few places to pump out. After a dozen years or more cruising the waterways I would encourage anyone to try it. You can moor up almost anywhere on the non-commercial canals, and marinas are not very pricey...

Hi Grehan. We are currently at Port des Bains on the Canal des Vosges - pretty rural - and using an orange domino, rechargeable online if need be. In Germany, we had to get a Vodafone equivalent, because the domino is locked up. However, over the past two months cruising, there have only been...

There are reports (speculation?) that Netflix will launch in France in the autumn. Meanwhile we are getting all UK domestic TV on broadband though an outfit called Smartsat - http://www.netdream.tv/ Works on our domestic WiFi through a set-top box about the size of a fag packet.