Hotel barge

The hotel barge (fr. péniche hôtel) came into being following the decline in commercial and freight carrying on the canals of Europe. Many working barges have been converted into floating hotels of varying degrees of luxury. This trend began in the 1960s and has now grown into a network of hotel barges operating on the canals and rivers of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK.

Pleasure cruising on European canals has a long history, and purpose-built boats offering accommodation have operated on these waterways since the 19th century, most notably the fleet on the Göta Canal in Sweden. The conversion of regular barges into passenger vessels offering simple cabin facilities dates back in England to 1923, when the Pauline, a Thames barge, was fitted out to ply on the Norfolk Broads. The Inland Waterways Association Festival of Boats and Arts in Market Harborough in 1950 featured Wanderer and Wayfarer, a pair of narrow boats which had been converted to provide accommodation, and in the following years several more such boats appeared on the English canals. The English canals were narrow, though, and only limited facilities could be provided.

Almost 200 years before canal vacations became popular, Thomas Jefferson, then ambassador to France before he became the third President of the United States, had written to a friend about the Canal du Midi in southern France. He said, "Of all the methods of travelling I have ever tried this is the pleasantest.... You should not think of returning to America without taking this tour I have taken." The idea of repeating in France what was proving successful in England by converting large barges (i.e. barges generally designed to fit into the locks of canals with minimal remaining volume) began in 1966 with the Barge Palinurus, converted from a carrying coal barge called the 'Ponctuel' and captained by Richard Parsons on the canals of the Burgundy region of France. This barge was equipped to take 22 passengers, with only one bath, two showers and two toilets, and cruised on the River Yonne and the Canal de Bourgogne (Burgundy Canal).

The popularity, particularly amongst American clients, of such cruises was improved by the American writer Emily Kimborough and her book Floating Island published in 1968, about her experiences aboard the Palinurus. The high standards of accommodation expected by American clients rapidly drove the levels of luxury hotel barges upwards. In 1969, Richard Parsons teamed up with Guy Bardet to launch Continental Waterways, a company that eventually ran 15 hotel barges in France.

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Wikipedia