Enjoy the Adventure of European River Cruises in France

Are you considering the possibility of embarking on one of the popular European river cruises for your next summer holidays? If so, you’ll see plenty of destination countries to choose, from including France. It’s possible to make a case for any of the countries concerned, yet for many people, France will seem just that bit more attractive. Why is that?

Practicality versus romance

For a start it’s necessary to talk about some of the rather more practical considerations that make France attractive to explore via its waterways. Those are very real and shouldn’t be dismissed too lightly, even if they are perhaps not the most glamorous of reasons.

They include: its close proximity to the UK; the availability of cheap flights and special ferry or train deals; the relatively safely predictable probability of having decent weather in the summer (at least from Paris southwards); the fact that much eating out as well as other social activities are still, on the whole, cheaper in France than they would be in the United Kingdom.

However, many people don’t select their summer holiday based upon the rather dry facts typically associated with such practicalities. What is necessary is a degree of romance and excitement in a potential destination - and few would dispute that France has that aplenty.

What’s romantic about France?

Entire books have been written on the subject of what exactly makes France so different from many of its neighbouring European countries, but for British visitors considering European river cruises, one of the most important is, inevitably, the countryside.

Of course, France is far larger than the UK with a roughly similar population, so it’s no great surprise that there is simply far more room available for countryside than is the case in Britain. Yet this is more than just the statistics of the population. It’s about how French governments and their people have managed to retain a predominantly rural culture over much of the country.

In other words, European river cruises in France will take you through "real" countryside, rich with rural traditions and strong local identities. When you leave your boat to go on a tour of the local small town or historic sites, you are going to be in no doubt at all that you are in the genuine, as opposed to artificially preserved, country.

You’ll see examples of crafts that have hardly changed in centuries, where individual techniques are jealously guarded within a family or a local community. Flora and fauna flourish here, and as you walk or cruise around, you’re going to see nature just as it was meant to be - rather than as a relatively small preserved corner between numbers of almost adjoining suburban overspill developments.

This is really the big attraction of France: getting to see, and indeed live, life the way it used to be and in a way many believe it should still be lived. Yes, wine, cheese, chateaux and baguettes all play a part in that, but they are only symptoms of a much more important fundamental rural difference between France and the United Kingdom. At heart, it is the countryside and the people that give it its romance – just one of the many reasons European river cruises here are so appealing.

Paul Newman is the Marketing and E-Systems Executive for European Waterways, a provider of luxury, all-inclusive barge holidays. If you're looking for European river cruises we offer experiences in France, Holland, Italy and the UK.

Writer and Online Marketing Manager in London.