By Aimee Laberge
There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t yet met.
-William Butler Yeats
La Luciole
The sun is shining when we arrive in the village of Clamecy to embark on our barge cruise through Bourgogne along the canal du Nivernais. Wonder what a barge cruise is all about? Lazy days spent at a serene pace through verdant rolling hills dotted with vineyards, châteaux, medieval villages… and punctuated by the bell calling us at a très gourmand table three times a day. More on ‘Les Arts de la Table’ later as there is so much to say!
La Luciole
Canal Landscape
Owned and operated by our host Penny for more than 25 years, La Luciole is a beautifully restored classic canal barge with shiny wooden paneling, brightly painted hull, and a deck where chilling is the only item on the agenda. Just remember to duck when Captain Charlie calls out a low bridge approaching! Our cozy cabin is just a few steps down for a post-lunch nap, which the English travelers on board refer to as a ‘kip’. Kipping is good!
Captain Charlie and Barge owner Penny
“Have fun!” is the only thing Penny advises on arrival when our barge fellows from UK, Ireland, New Zealand and the US toast the start of our journey with a flute of Crémant de Bourgogne, the only real rival to champagne when it comes to bubbles.
Question #1. How do you say “kipping” in French?
Barge Life
A bicyclette, a song by Yves Montand, is the perfect soundtrack for a morning vélo ride to work out the extra calories from the night before. We hop off when the barge transits in a lock and the staff brings a coffee to the “éclusier”. We will hop back on at the next écluse, or the next one over… or the one after! The super flat tow-path prevents any attempt at over-exertion and gives us time to observe the birds, the flowers, the cheese-producing cows and the famously edible Escargot de Bourgogne. It also makes us curious about the canal’s history, so here it is for the history buffs.
Long before La Luciole, Paris needed firewood and lumber. Wooden rafts called train de bois were floated from the Morvan Forest to the capital along the Yonne and Seine rivers. The canal du Nivernais was completed in 1842, when barges carrying heavy loads of grain, stone, or coal made their way drawn by mules. La Luciole began her life in 1926 under the name “Ponctuel” until transportation by truck replaced barge traffic. This is when two inspired British gentlemen invented barge tourism through the most beautiful waterways in France… La Luciole became a “hotel barge” in 1966 carrying 22 passengers under the name “Palinurus”. She became Penny’s La Luciole in 1985.
Lock Sign
Canal History
Lock Kevin Tibbles
Here is our photo harvest à bicyclette :
Bicycling Kevin
Tow Path Bicycle
Coquelicot, Passiflore, Orchidée Pyramide, Wheat, Wine grafts… and a snail, au naturel.
Passaflore
Poppy
Wheat
Escargot
Question #2 What does being “Ponctuel” mean?
Les Arts de la Table
22 artisan fromages and 18 wines in 6 days! This is the epicurean experience we live to tell on La Luciole! Three times a day, the twelve of us gather to share our bon-mots, our culture, and our latest adventures…
First thing in the morning the staff goes to the village’s boulangerie to pick the freshest croissants and bread for breakfast. Can you smell this French baguette? Good enough to wake the dead!
Breakfast Table
Lunch and dinner start with Chef Owen presenting us the menu du jour. Chef Owen is Irish and, uncharacteristically, a man of few words. His deliciously expressive cuisine speaks volumes, each dish a poem often festooned with edible flowers.
Lunch Time
Quail Fillets
Most memorable poems from Chef Owen include his Foie gras à la poêle with pear gel and toasted brioche; his quail filets with wild mushrooms and blackberry flower salad; and his Mille-Feuille with raspberry Chantilly cream, braised rhubarb and wild berry coulis.
Chef Owen
Mille-Feuille
Cheese speech
Yes, you heard it right: 22 French cheeses, and we barely dented the Hexagon’s goat, sheep and cow’s ripe wonders. Two cheeses are sampled at lunch and two more at dinner, at the end of the meal and just before dessert, and always with the crustiest sliced baguette. By the way, baguette bread has been recognized as a Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO and is regulated by the French government price-wise… and length-wise!
Cheese market
The cheese speech is done by Fanette, our French steward, glowing with pride when she introduces the local product from her own village. Epoisse is a really big cheese in an all-star lineup featuring Pont l’Evêque, Comté, Roquefort, Camembert, Morbier, Munster, Reblochon… But the creamiest of all was the local Délice de Bourgogne. Miam-miam! (French for Yum-Yum!)
Munster Comté
Reblochon Saint Maure de Touraine
Question #3. What do you call a “Big Cheese” in French?
La Carte des Vins
A meal is not French unless paired with wine and we were treated to 18 different AOC (Appellation d’origine contrôlée) over 6 days. AOC is a French protection system guaranteeing the origin and quality in wine and cheese. For wine this means terroir, or the very soil where the vine grows. If south Burgundy has the prestigious Côte d’Or vintages, north Burgundy has the Côtes d’Auxerre, the bubbly Crémant and the famous Chablis.
Cremant Tasting
Chablis Tasting
Wine presentations are made with eloquence by Cailen when he is not guiding our barge in through the locks with Captain Charlie. How he rolls and stores the cordage on the foredeck is a work of art!
To discover lesser-known wines is one of the pleasures of our table. The local Irancy Palotte Bienvenu 2022, made with pinot noir and 10% of caesar grape, one of the oldest known to man, is grown side by side with cherry trees. Une remarquable cuvée, says the Guide Hachette du Vin. It was perfectly paired with the filet of lamb with mint jus while the appetizer of scallops with caviar and asparagus tips was served with a Côte d’Auxerre blanc Bailly Lapierre 2022. A local Sauvignon blanc, Saint-Bris Felix 2023, was poured at lunch with a beef and quail ballotine and grilled aubergine salad. Yet another hors-pair pairing: the Mercury Premier Cru Domaine F Picard 2021 from Côte Chalonnaise served with the filet de Charolais beef on our last meal.
Cremant Tasting
VIN Rully
Extra wine centiliters lead to extra exuberance on the bus on the day we head out to the Domaine de la Moutonne in the beautiful village of Chablis. This is where we learn to make the difference between a simple Petit Chablis, a notch-above Chablis Village and a complex Chablis Grand-Crus. We leave the sunny gardens of the Domaine filled with the scent of blooming roses to go underground in a quarry where we are treated to the famous Crémant de Bourgogne brut, extra brut and rosé… La vie est bulle indeed! Back on the barge, the Chablis Les Beaumont Dampt Freres 2022 is paired with a roasted breast of duck with Port jus. What more can we ask for? Calvados – or chamomile – of course!
Chablis Tasting
La Vie Est Bulle
We are definitely more vin-savants now than before we stepped on La Luciole, thanks to the immediate suspension of the very North American “I’m not drinking at lunch “rule!
Soupe populaire
Chef Owen even elevates la soupe to something unforgettable. A celeriac velouté with wild mushrooms was the first course served on our first night and yes, butter and cream as well as vegetables were involved but Chef also shared the secret ingredient… a dash of sherry vinegar. The parsley soup, the parsnip one and the beetroot and apple potage with dill cream are inoubliables!
And since we are on the subject… Do you know what is a soupe populaire? I found out during an early morning walk through the village Châtel-Censoir. Each village we visit has a seriously old church, a city hall with the words “Liberté, Egalite, Fraternité” spelled across its façade and, in the middle of the town square, a memorial to the ones lost during WW1. But in Châtel-Censoir’s mist I also found the ghost of Edme Champion, otherwise known as Le Manteau Bleu. An orphan who left the village at 13 and made it rich in the capital, he set up Paris’ very first soup kitchen, serving the homeless wrapped in a bright blue coat…
City Hall
Chatel Censoir Monument
Chatel Censoir Sign
Interested by WW1 and how each village got their memorial in particular? You must read Au revoir là-haut / The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaire.
Have Fun!
How do you make friends with perfect strangers in 6 days? Easy-peasy on La Luciole: break bread at a long table and toast the day with fine wines. Lounge on a barge’s deck looking at the fields slip by in serene silence. Feel spirituality rising under the high naves of a basilica built for pilgrims. Strike an unexpected conversation about the meaning of dreams according to Jung on a vineyard look-out. Help each other over the well-worn stone steps of a château’s staircase. Have a ball trying on silk scarfs from India at the market in a medieval village. Dance to celebrate a wedding anniversary, then try to say good-bye with fireworks blooming over Auxerre… before immediately starting a WhatsApp group chat. 
Luciole Chez Penny
Luciole Staff
Luciole Cheers
Fireworks Auxerre
Au revoir et à très vite!
Question #4. What is a “Luciole”?
Playlist du Jour
Edith Piaf / La vie en rose
Yves Montand / A bicyclette
Juliette Greco / La Javanaise
Charles Trenet / Le Jardin Extraordinaire
Joe Dassin / Au Champs Elysées
Iggy Pop/ Les Feuilles mortes
Pink Martini / Sympathique (Je ne veux pas travailler)
Patti Labelle / Voulez vous coucher avec moi
Manhattan Transfer / Chanson d’amour
Celine Dion / L’Hymne à l’amour … or My heart Will Go On
Daft Punk / Get Lucky
Serge Gainsbourg + Jane Birkin / Je t’aime moi non plus
Here are the answers to the questions:
#1. Faire la sieste.
#2. To be on time
#3. Le Gros bonnet or Le Grand Manitou, but Le Grand Fromage also works!
#4. A Firefly…
This voyage was booked through Barge Lady Cruises, a family-owned and Chicago-based business specializing in European Barge Cruising. Photos by La Luciole passengers. Live, Love and Learn French at the Alliance Française de Chicago, the place for all things très chic.
Aimée is Laberge on La Barge!
Laberge on La Barge
Quebec born and bred, Aimée Laberge has been promoting French and Francophone cultures for 15 years in her role as Director of Programs at the Alliance Francaise de Chicago until recently.
Before settling in Chicago, Laberge worked as an art director in broadcast television in Montreal, Toronto, and London. She published her debut novel, Where the River Narrows (HarperCollins Canada) in 2003, followed by Les Amants de Mort-Bois (Québec-Amérique) in 2007. A Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers Conference and a Ragdale Foundation fellow, Laberge has received multiple grants from the Canada Council for the Arts. She is currently working on her third novel. Aimée Laberge is a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
