Your captain will meet you at your Paris hotel. You will be escorted to La Chouette waiting for you in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Soon you will be cruising through the city of Paris sipping champagne as you pass under those renowned bridges and on past the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, and the magnificent Notre Dame Cathedral.

As we leave the city the surroundings change to the smart country houses of suburbia. Barbecue supper on board.

The day starts when you feel like it. You are on holiday after all! Breakfast can be taken before we leave or while we are cruising to Melun from where we can visit Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte.

This is the first of the great houses to be built in the 17th century combining impressive architecture with beautifully designed gardens.

Our mooring this evening is further up the river at Bois le Roi (King's Wood) where we can try our luck at a game of petanque on the boules park nearby.

Dinner is taken just a short walk away in the delightful Restaurant de la Marine.

This morning our mini-bus can take us on a trip through the Fontainebleau Forest to Barbizon, the charming village where the Pre-Impressionist painters congregated and where we can see examples of their work in the Auberge Ganne.

After lunch we cruise to Moret-sur-Loing where Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley lived and then we take a guided tour of this fascinating town steeped in history.

Dinner is taken in one of Morets' finest restaurants La Palette.

An early morning visit to the street market in St Mammes. This is one of the 'barge capitals' of France and where you will see many commercial barges tied up. the market is on the quay alongside these barges.

We then cruise to our Sunday lunchtime stop at the restaurant La Gaule on the river Yonne. Sunday lunch in France is special and needs to be savoured slowly.

Later we move on through several of the Yonne's characteristic locks with their sloping sides to our stop for the night near Champfleury. Supper on board.

Our first cruise stop today is Sens where we can visit the magnificent cathedral and museum containing a unique collection of ancient fabrics and priest's vestments. Lunch on board.

An afternoon cruise to Villeneuve sur Yonne takes us through some of the most beautiful Yonne valley countryside. We moor right outside our restaurant for this evenings dinner prior to this we visit the vineyards of Cote St Jacques and enjoy a degustation, or tasting , of the local wine. It may be possible to see a winepress which has been used since the 14th century. The dinner will be at

La Lucarne Aux Chouettes, a riverside restaurant owned by Leslie Caron.

This morning we cruise at a leisurely pace to Joigny where, after a walk around the old town, we have lunch on board.

This afternoons' visit takes in Auxerre with its monumental architecture, Irancy for a tasting of its excellent red and rose wines and the villages around Chablis where we taste that famous dry white wine. Dinner will be at Le Moulin.

After breakfast we transfer to the railway station for your return journey to Paris.

Last updated 22/05/04