The inland waterways of Europe are an irresistible destination for anyone who wants to widen their horizons. The sheer size of the network (France alone has twice as many navigable miles as Britain), the fascination of working barge traffic, and of course, the countryside these waterways pass through--taken together, exploring the Continental waterways could be a lifetime's work. Indeed, we have been at it for 30 years and still not visited every canal and river in Europe, even though we have been on most canals from the south of France, through all of Belgium and onto the North coast of Netherlands. One of the summers, when we had our motorsailer, we went through northern Germany, a lot of Denmark, the west coast of Sweden and spent 2-weeks on the Telemark Canal in Southern Norway.

But, do you need a large boat for Europe? In many eyes, Dutch barges and French peniches are the craft most associated with European cruising. In fact, most private boats on the Continental waterways are small boats under 15-meters (49ft). Just as in the USA, there are more and more people cruising and that can make for a difficult situation when looking for a mooring if you have anything over 15-meters. More and more marinas and town moorings are prohibiting boats over 15-meters. Our 10-meter tugboat has no problem finding moorings and big smiles are on the faces of the men of the capitainerie at the Bastille marina, near the center of Paris and one lock above the Seine River.