Clair de Lune boat/barge tour reviews — 1 to 30 of 65

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

Touring the Abby that is being restored. It was amazing! The fishing lodge/castle was very cool, too. The guide and barge staff were great and went out of their way to make us comfortable. The reason I gave it only 4 stars is we rode on busy roads more than I was expecting and more than I like to. But, we saw a lot more by leaving the canel trail. So, everything is a tradeoff. The canel path was dull after a day or so. I didn't see any areas that were being restored, like I see along bike trails here. That was disappointing, but probably something most people wouldn't notice. The fod was very good, at times, excellent. The guests were all very nice and extremely good natured about the rain we had almost every day. Overall, it was quite enjoyable.

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

Having experienced and enjoyed bike and barge vacations for over 10 years, I can say, without a doubt, that the Clair the de Lune's crew were the most attentive, professional, and charismatic. Like most, we select our tours based on destination, daily tour activity, and pleasant docking locations. Those factors are easily researched. The wild cards are often the barge condition, crew personality, and of course, the dining experience. Marco resolved all those concerns by keeping an impeccable barge, bringing on chef Jenny, housekeeper Catalina and tour guide Dick. Our rooms were clean and include both heat and A/C. The dining was inventive and locally sourced. Daily tours were perfectly planned and well managed to optimize our group members. The adage that you must sacrifice amenities if you choose smaller comfort barges over the larger boats did not hold up. We had uncooperative weather (they dried our clothes), flat tire, chain issues (rapidly addressed), difficulties getting to the Briare train (they loaded up personal vehicles and drove their bikes to ensure our timely departures). Bravo Clare de Lune!

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

The staff—Marco, Dick, Jenn, and Catalina—were wonderful, professional, knowledgeable, helpful, and friendly! The trip through the French countryside was awesome! The Clair de Lune Barge was comfortable, and clean! The food was delicious! It was a marvelous journey!

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

We had a wonderful week on the Clair de Lune. The barge is small and the cabins tiny but when we went through the locks with less than an inch to spare, the width was understandable. The captain, Marco, was delightful. He spent time with us every evening and improved the quality of our trip with his presence. Dick, our guide, has excellent and has a great sense of humour!
Food was good. Highlights included visiting the Abbey de Fontmorigny and meeting its owner, Dominique, and visiting le Château de Meauce. A special experience was being taken inside the private and beautifully renovated living space of Cèdric & Séverine Mignon! The crew adapted well the the changes necessitated by damage to the canal near Briare. The bike paths as well designed and maintained and I felt very safe travelling on them. I’d highly recommend this type of a holiday.

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

The boat was smaller than the others I have been on for other bike trips but the crew was great!! Very friendly and helpful. Dick our guide was the BEST! THEeals were very good too

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

Most memorable: Crossing the Briare Aqueduct was awsome. The barge, Clare de Lune, and the captain, chef, crew, and tour guide made our trip most enjoyable.

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

First day as we cycled to Sancerre it was a trip of high hills, made manageable with ebikes. The views were spectacular! Visits to two chateaus were memorable.

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

The staff on the Clair de Lune were fantastic, funny and hard working. The food was beautifully prepared, nutritious and delicious. I enjoyed the visit to goat cheese farm, moving through the locks, exploring beautiful old towns and traveling in a bridge canal over the Loire River. A couple of days were less interesting. Don’t forget your rain jacket.

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

All the team of "Claire de Lune" was wonderfull. All the dinners on the boat were excellent, and the experience when the boat stopped on the floodgates were funny and very interesting. The tour in bikes it´s very nice and advisable. Many thanks at all.

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

The scenery was spectacular and the barge crew was excellent

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

The daily rides were wonderful. We saw lots of the French countryside plus the use of the canal locks. Advice: be sure you are comfortable on a bike, touring or e-bike. We left the boat at 9:00 and returned by 4 or 5, so we're riding all day. Some in our group hadn't ridden in decades and it was rough. There is always an option to cruise the canals on the boat, which is great!

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

I had a wonderful time! The crew and guide were kind, friendly and helpful. The meals onboard were excellent. The guide was patient and confident. I appreciated his willingness. Thank you.

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

We had an amazing time. The barge was quite spacious compared to the pics we saw and very comfortable. The food was amazing, our Chef Chris was too good with a 3 course meal at every dinner and he explains in detail every course. We had some great food. Biking through the Loire Valley was just beautiful. We cycle through vineyards, farmlands, little French villages & towns, watched boats going thru locks and sailed through a canal over the Loire River. We did some wine tasting and pastries, quiches. The list goes on. We totally love it. Just a side note, there was no spare electric bike, cos one of the girls wanted to change to an Electric Bike and there was none. Other than that it was totally amazing ❤️

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

Amazing food, every meal!
Personable and knowledgeable staff.
Even tho it was our guide (Ed)’s first tour on the route, he managed to sleuth out some great sites, side routes and stops. He was a fun guide yet responsible.
The overall route was beautiful.
I would make one suggestion about the barge: in the cabin where we stayed there was too little storage space. This could be easily remedied by adding hooks and small shelves.

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

Arriving in Nevers I was surprised at how difficult it was to get a taxi at 4:30 pm and no ride share companies, took well over an hour.
Was pleasantly surprised at how good the food was, Chris has a great personality and a fabulous chef. Sara, served us well and the bike/barge trip was good. It was slow season so towns we rode to were pretty but desolate.

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

Everything was great! Exceeded my expectations. I would recommend a GoPro !

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

Everything was great! Exceeded my expectations. I would recommend a GoPro !

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

I thought the whole trip was fantastic, the scenery so beautiful.
The length of the rides could have been a little longer - which a few of us took advantage on a couple of occasions to ride extra kilometres..
The guide’s first on this Trip, and the bikes were not in expected condition hence my 4..

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

Crew was engaging and friendly.
Hats off to Chris the food was delicious.
Bike maintenance was sub par. My front bikes never worked. Some riders had Saddle issues, chains/derailers not shifting correctly. One of the e-bikes was broken and the guest was forced to ride hybrid bike. Another ebike should have been offered to her.
Ed, our guide did the best he could regarding the route since he was not familiar with the area. Most of the ladies were under the impression there was going to be more wine tastings along the way. I was there to cycle and easily could’ve done 60 miles a day or more. I realize there was many different cycling levels in the group. I personally own Mtn ebike and an analog mountain bike. I wasn’t too impressed with the e-bikes provided.

  Clair de Lune Loire Valley Bike & Boat
France

This was a great week mostly due to the people. The crew, Capt. Luc, Francesca, Jen and Annita were first rate. Our fellow passengers made it so much fun and made for delightful dinners together, as well as, riding throughout the French countryside. The people we meet each trip is the reason we keep coming back as we develop lifelong friendships with riders around the globe!

  Clair de Lune Bruges to Paris
Belgium, France

The best part of our trip was the crew! Our captain, guide, cook and cabin staff made this trip special. From the first day we were welcomed, encouraged, and accommodated. After 600km of memorable cycling it was indicative that the entire group chose to “sail” the last 20km. into Paris with our new family. A fabulous ending to a great two weeks.

  Clair de Lune Bruges to Paris
Belgium, France

We particularly enjoyed the four crew members who took care of us. The guide, captain, cook and cabin leader couldn’t have better. They cared for each cyclist in every way. We all chose to ride the barge into Paris on our last day and it was a very special day.

  Clair de Lune Strasbourg to Nancy
France

There were several memorable parts:
Both Strasbourg and Nancy are beautiful cities with a great deal of medieval charm; the Valley of the Locks with its dried abandoned channels and locks, and of course, the St Louis-Arzviller lock, where lock, water and boats are lifted (or lowered) 42 m, replacing 17 locks we saw abandoned; our boat, the Clair de Lune and its friendly and competent crew, the smallest barge we had ventured in till then, but that it showed us the efficiency of its cabin layouts to remove previous concerns about barge size to the point that we are booking another trip on a similar sized barge next year.

  Clair de Lune Strasbourg to Nancy
France

Enjoyed all aspects.Nancy and Strausburg really nice to visit at beginning and end.

  Clair de Lune Strasbourg to Nancy
France

The boat elevator.

  Clair de Lune Strasbourg to Nancy
France

Captain and crew of Clare de Lune were great. Enjoyed time aboard piloting down canal and through locks and down canal elevator, (not kidding... elevator). Barge cook delivered top-notch meals. Biking along canal was easy... but would recommend taking some of the more difficult routes away from the canal for beautiful rural scenery and panoramas. Enjoyed Nancy and Saverne and loved Strasbourg.