liveaboard french canal

[PaddyDog]

Hi
Can any one give me information on living aboard a yacht in the canals in france.
How much are the canals mooring etc...?
Does anyone work while living on a boat on the canals?

Thanks <span style="color:green"> </span>

 

[Mrnotming]

I have met a couple in 2003 who live on a barge in Paris, have landline, internet etc and both of them work regularly. Berthing next to the quay seems to take a couple of years, and local authority charges were said to be moderate.There are many communities throughout france as well as working barge owners 'peniches ' UK and Irish expats usually prefer to overwinter in the Carcassonne or Aigues -Mortes areas or maybe Sete, but there are also locations near the Petit Rhone, cannot remember the name of the town offhand.There is also a community at Chalon -sur-Saone and two bases H20 and another with a most English sounding name ......? (Bastibles does'nt sound right but some other forumite will fill in the blanks while I rack my brains! ) Try the life before you commit to any irreversible arrangement, as winters can be tough, frozen canals etc.Very enjoyable most of the time.

 

[Abaker]

Welcome to the liveaboard forum. My wife and I lived aboard our yacht in northern French canals for a couple of years, in two marinas: the Port de Plaisance Arsenal on the Canal St Martin in the heart of Paris, and Sodeports Port-Cergy (www.portcergy.com) located on the River Oise just upstream from its confluence with the Seine. Cergy is a pleasant suburb of Paris, with good commuter train service. Our yacht is 10.4 m LOA, 3 m beam, 1.6 m draft. The current winter rate for it in Cergy is 190 Euros/mo. Last summer's rate was 313 Euros/mo. Paris rates are substantially higher, especially in the summer, and it's more difficult to get a reservation there. At that latitude and altitude, frost is not a problem. Being retired, we did not work, but French people living aboard in both marinas do work.

 

[saskia]

There's quite a lot of information on this site: http://www.billybubbles.demon.co.uk/living/problems.html written by a chap who's been living on a narrow boat in Europe for some years. Also worth mentioning that there seems to be quite a liveaboard community at St Jean de Losne. The H2O site gives you costs and other details: http://www.h2ofrance.com/
Best of luck.

 

[PaddyDog]

Hi
Thanks for all your replys.

 

[Wino]

Long term - live aboard - moorings are at St Jean de Losne. We also enquired about long term at Challon sur Saone and were told that there are no facilities for live aboards in winter - eg no staff at times and the water is turned off from November until March. I saw what we thought were long term live aboards when we were there in Summer, but on looking in there at the end of December found all the boats were empty and there was no one there at all. Also because the port is open to the full current when river is in flood many of the moorings can not be used and so there is a long waiting list for local boats. We know many people who have wintered further down on the Rhone at Valence which has moorings in a side cut away from the main current - Macon and St Jean de Losne are the same. We were going to winter on Canal de Centre near Chagny (Beaune ) but were told we could not as that canal was emptied for the winter. There are many live aboards in Roanne which is no where near as expensive as other winter moorings. Best of luck I hope you find somewhere

 

[Grehan]

A very similar question was asked not very long ago . . .
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1723875/an/0/page/2#1723875

 

[PaddyDog]

Thanks for all useful information