North of Holland to Central france

[pheran]

I will be taking a boat from the north of Holland to somewhere on the French river/canal system. Actual destination not yet specified so assume central to north. Boat itself is a 13 metre Dutch steel mobo (draft 1.2 mtres, headroom requirement a fraction over 3 metres) essentially a river cruiser so I would like make most, if not all the journey via the inland waterways. Anyone got any suggestions as to route? Estimates of distances would be most helpful too. Many thanks.

 

[kalessin]

As I happened to have the Europe Inland waterways map open beside me when I read your post I thought it would be interesting to consider options - but I don't know any of them personally.

The two main north/south routes would be the Rhine/Moselle, heading west at Nancy, and the various routes which connect through the Meuse and take you down towards Paris. I think most people would avoid the Rhine as it is Europe's busiest waterway, especially heading upstream against the strong current.

Can you provide more information about your starting point and guess at an end point? Otherwise it's hard to estimate distances!

 

[Grehan]

Don't miss going through (stopping over in) Paris! Bit like getting to Gibraltar - loads of people have done it before you, but it's a great and memorable thing to do nonetheless.

 

[Andrewells]

It all depends on how much time you have.My boat is at Akkrum and I hope to head south via Zwolle,Arnhem and Maastricht later this year. If you have more time then go via Amsterdam ,Haarlem and the Delta areas. There are canals across Belgium from there but I have not done them yet.