Visiting France has always been a traveling plan full of excitement with so many beautiful locations to deserve your attention and interest. This country displays a richness of relief’s forms starting with the majestic views of the Alps and ending with the French Riviera beaches, and as a traveler through France you can never say that boredom can be one’s thing.
The country is filled also with history, traces of historic vestiges that have been so vividly reconstructed to offer the tourists a great grasp at the old days that made France a place of distinct royalty.
There is one way through which you can visit France and see it from another perspective: cruising over the rivers.
You have the chance to rent a boat on your own and sail over different types of rivers: from the most peaceful ones where there is only you and the nature around to the ones with noisy fishermen villages accompanying your cruising from alongside the river banks.
There are also those parts of French canal system where you can come in contact with the true French sense of countryside and meet the friendly people if you have the opportunity to get on the shore and visit these picturesque locations.
Cruising Strasbourg, France
Cruising over the rivers in France you have this beautiful perspective of a tourist seeing this country from the water view. It is a great opportunity to avoid the noise of the cities, the honks of the cars in traffic.
There is nothing but you, the sailboat and peaceful nature around to enable you discover the villages from a different point of view.
You will come across the locks, which are the places where a canal will change its level and in this way your boat needs to pass through a series of gates.
You will be welcomed by lock-keeper with each gate to give you hand, but you will find this part of the cruising as a very challenging one. Great tourist pictures can be taken from these locks but also from along the cruising you take all this time.
There are endless rivers in France that you can sail up, so you just have to choose the right region for you.
This can be either Picardy, Upper Normandy or Île-de-France some of the 27 regions of France, where you can visit such pearls as Paris, Amiens, Rouen or Reims, while sailing up the rivers like Seine, Somme, Marne and Oise. Other great regions are Lorraine, Loire, Burgundy, Provence, Midi, Aquitaine or Brittany.
Canals of Amiens France
You have one last thing to take into account before you sail on: make sure that you talk with the cruising agency to offer you a service of renting bikes.
It would be great that while you are in the cruise to have the chance to land on shore and take a tour on bike to taste in a natural way (without the use of a rented car) the landscapes you come across.
Another great way would be to rent a canoe, kayak or raft on any of the wilder rivers where sailing with a boat is not possible.
Some of the best rafting experience can be enjoyed on the rivers like Ubaye River, Verdon River, Ardeche River, Aude River, Gave d’Oloron River, Gave d’Ossau River, or Gave de Pau River. In the region of Rhone Alpes you can choose from the Doron de Bozel River or Isere River.
Related: Interesting places in France
Photo by mike matthews
