With over 7000km of navigable rivers and canals, boating can be one of the best and most relaxed ways of exploring France. Except on parts of the Moselle, there's no charge for use of the waterways, and you can travel without a permit for up to six months in a year. For information on maximum dimensions, documentation, regulations and so forth, contact Voies Navigables de France (VNF), 175 rue Ludovic Boutleux, 62408 Béthune (tel 03.21.63.24.24, www.vnf.fr), which has information on boating throughout France, and details of firms that rent out boats. British companies organizing boating holidays include Hoseasons (tel 01502/502 588, www.hoseasons.co.uk) and Crown Blue Line (tel 01603/630 513, www.crownblueline.com), while both French Country Cruises (tel 01572/821 330, fax 821 072) and the France-based Locaboat (tel 03.86.91.72.72, www.locaboat.com) specialize in penichettes, scaled down replicas of commercial barges. Expect to pay between €700 and €1200 per week, depending on season, for a 3–5 person boat. For a full list of rental firms operating in France write to the Fédération des Industries Nautiques, Port de Javel Haut, 75015 Paris (tel 01.44.37.04.00, www.france-nautic.com).The principal areas for boating are Brittany, Burgundy, Picardy-Flanders, Alsace and Champagne. Brittany's canals join up with the Loire, but this is only navigable as far as Angers. Other waterways permit numerous permutations, including joining up via the Rhône and Saône with the Canal du Midi in Languedoc and then northwestwards to Bordeaux and the Atlantic. The eighteenth-century Canal de Bourgogne and 300-year-old Canal du Midi are fascinating examples of early canal engineering. The latter, together with its continuation the Canal du Sète à Rhône, passes within easy reach of several interesting areas. The through-journey from the Channel to the Mediterranean requires some planning. The Canal de Bourgogne has an inordinate number of locks, while other waterways demand considerable skill and experience – the Rhône and Saône rivers, for example, have tricky currents. The most direct route is from Le Havre to just beyond Paris, then south either on Canal du Loing et de Briare or Canal du Nivernais to the Canal Latéral à la Loire, which you follow as far as Digoin in southern Burgundy, where it crosses the River Loire and meets the Canal du Centre. You follow the latter as far as Châlon, where you continue south on the Saône and Rhône until you reach the Mediterranean at Port St-Louis in the Camargue.
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