Hello and a very warm ‘Welcome’ to our website for 2010. Once again we’re delighted to report that our dedicated clients have told us they really enjoy the easy style and user-friendliness of our website, and we hope that you feel this too as you explore all the barging treats we offer you in 2010. Again for the new season we have made many improvements to our site, such as making it easier for you to search for the right barge for you (see our barge search page), creating new improved ‘Cruise Route’ pages (click tab at top of this page) —each upgraded with new, more detailed, enlargeable maps to help you get your bearings and understand where exactly you will cruise (it’s amazing the number of other people’s clients we meet whilst visiting the barges, and often they are not sure where they are cruising even when on the barge!). Most importantly, we hope that this website that we work so hard on all year round, will give you all the information that you could possibly need on barges and barging destinations in our featured regions of Europe. We want you to be able to choose with ease where you wish to cruise and before making your choice, be able to view all the possibilities clearly and easily. If you have any comments on the new website please e-mail us and let us know your thoughts. We’d love to hear your suggestions if you think we can improve it in any way. Thank you.

Our barge visits have not been quite so numerous over the last 12 months due to the arrival of our beautiful first baby son named Felix (see above!), but we have already made plans to recommence our regular visits from Autumn 2007 onwards, and you will be able to view our visits on our popular ‘Barge of the Month’ page and so keep track of where we’ve been and what we’ve been up to.

In 2010 we give you 6 pages of brilliant information on every barge, as follows:

Page 1 - an index page (with large exterior picture, barge description, prices and bullet point details)
Page 2 – an itinerary page (with a sample day by day itinerary—or several if the barge cruises more than one route)
Page 3 – a pictures page (now with even more detailed, enlargable pictures - of living areas, cabins, bathrooms, sun decks, the facilities on deck such as spa pools, etc.)
Page 4 – a client quotes page (sharing feedback from past clients who cruised)
Page 5 – a food and wine page (a wonderful insight into what to expect at mealtimes!)
Page 6 – a deck plan (so you can understand the layout of the barge and see how things are arranged on board).

Each 6 page ‘Barge Brochure’ is very easy to navigate around – simply click the named ‘tabs’ or ‘buttons’ at the top of each page.

We are also—of course—retaining all of the great features that we already had on the website, which have proved to be a great success over the last year, including:

To complement and make the most of all our excellent hotel-barge information, we invite you to download a ‘printer-friendly’ version of the barge page(s) of your choice. Every ‘barge page’ has its own ‘.pdf brochure’ button. Simply click on it and you will access a full colour Adobe .pdf file. This file can then be saved onto your computer should you wish, to browse at your leisure off-line, therefore saving you from having to be connected to the internet to read about the barge. It is also helpful if you are doing research for your group and wish to e-mail them the information on a barge - or barges - that you think would suit your group.
In addition to the barge pages, most of the other pages on our site have been designed to be simple to print directly from your internet browser.



If you have an idea what you’re looking for then use our Barge Search facility. Using this you can search for your selected barge. You can contact us at any time by e-mail, phone or fax to enquire about available barges according to multiple criteria – cruise route, capacity, average price per person, type of cruise (full board, half board, etc.) and now even by the themed cruises that our barges offer. Or, if you know the name of a barge you’re interested in then simply use our A – Z List of Barges to click straight through to it.

Finally, there’s a ‘Contact Us’ button which you can press on every page to e-mail us if you have no idea which barge would be right for your group—this will take you straight to Marie who’s waiting to help you!

These pages will explain all the aspects of a barge cruise with The Barge Company, from what’s included and what’s not, to how to book and our service to you. After reading this section you’re sure to feel like an experienced barger already! Click on About our Cruises now!

Within this section you’ll be able to access Which Barge?, Why Cruise?, FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), and a section on Corporate Cruising



If you’re unsure about where to cruise then why not peruse our Cruise Routes pages and see which region suits you the best before doing your barge search – we tell you all about each of our barging destinations, from a barging point of view of course. These pages also list which barges cruise there so you can click right through, and if you can’t find what you’re looking for then feel free to e-mail us at any time.



We will continue to post up the best offers in barging on our Special Offers page. This page will be reviewed weekly to make sure it is always up to date. We will also continue to give you ‘the inside story’ on special barges, month by month, in our Barge of the Month feature page.

If you’d like to try a less formal cruise why not opt for one of our half-board cruises, or the delightful Bed and Breakfast or even Bare Boat barges.

If you want to learn more about us and The Barge Companyboth as a company and individual human beings, then head for About Us on this website, which will reveal all!

If, after all that, you still have questions, then go to our FAQs page (Frequently Asked Questions) which should be able to answer any other questions that you may have.

And if, by that time, you know which barge you want then please just contact us without delay. You are of course always welcome to e-mail or call us anyway – we always love to hear from you.

One final point – please remember that we are based in the south of France, very close to most of the barges, and therefore if you call us from the USA or CANADA we will be at least 5 or 6 hours ahead of your time—sometimes up to 9 hours ahead. We do work until late each night, but if we’re unable to take your call, please do leave us a message and we’ll get right back to you with all the information you need.

With our warmest regards and best wishes for another great year of barging -



Marie, Mark and Felix Gallé
The Barge Cruise Company Ltd.