On the way back, we moored for the night in Pontailler-sur-Saône.
Moored in front of us was a “hotel barge.”
These are renovated commercial barges. They are longer than Aleau but have the same beam. (If they were wider, they couldn’t fit into the locks.) They travel the same canals and rivers as Aleau. The smaller ones have two guest cabins and take four paying passengers. And boy, do they pay.
At a very favourable exchange rate, that comes out to more than $45,000 Canadian per couple (or cabin) for five days and six nights cruising the same waterways and, as with here in Pontailler-sur-Saône, spending nights at the same moorings as Aleau. (Tips not included.)
So, we began thinking… What about operating a B&B? A Barge & Breakfast. The price of a hotel barge cruise includes all the alcohol their guests can drink. We could do that. The hotel barges have a van that follows along and takes guests on tours to wineries and chateaux. We could buy a used car and do that, too. The dining and the cabins might be a bit more fancy than on Aleau. But Aleau is still pretty nice – and we would charge a fraction of what a hotel barge charges. Something to think about…
Pontailler-sur-Saône has a lovely restaurant. (Of course, so has every town we have stopped in.)
Yes, it’s daylight in the photo below. I took it when we stopped for lunch on our way upstream to Ray-sur-Saône. It was that lunch that made us come back for dinner. It was even better.
