When Kit Parks interviewed veteran Boat Bike Tours guests Penny and Jim for her Active Travel Adventures podcast, a theme emerged: the ease of traveling this way.
Penny and Jim hail from Texas originally, but now live in Colorado. They took a bicycling tour once in the San Juan islands off of S eattle and enjoyed it, but what turned them off was the fact that they had to pack and unpack every day.
This is why they first chose to travel with Boat Bike Tours: the ship serves as a mobile hotel, so you only have to unpack once. Since then, they’ve done several tours with us, though in the podcast they don’t state exactly how many.
At the same time, it’s clear from listening to the podcast that Penny and Jim, both in their 70s, often can’t name the places they visited, but they have clear and happy memories of the tours in terms of what they experienced.
The Camargue in Provence, France
While the podcast interview was meant to cover just the boating and biking tour in the Camargue, Penny and Jim are enthusiastic about all the tours they’ve taken. They throw in stories and examples from Italy and the Netherlands as well as France.
The Camargue is the river delta region of the Rhone River where it meets the Mediterranean, which means it is rich in bird life, including flamingos, and other species like wild horses. It has remnants of Greek and Roman history, and the breathtaking scenery inspired artists like Van Gogh and Cezanne.
Penny and Jim mention a number of experiences in the Camargue that stand out in their memories:
Bull-fighting
One day the tour stopped to see a bullfight and running of the bulls. The bullfighting in the Camargue does not involve killing. Rather, an attribut such as a scarf or flowers is attached to the bull’s horn and the goal of the “bullfighter” is simply to remove it.
A bauxite mine in Les Baux-de-Provence
The tour route includes a stop at an ancient Bauxite mine, where white limestone was quarried for centuries. This involves a steep climb up a mountain, one of very few hills on the tour. Penny and Jim were able to climb the hill on their bikes, but guests also had the option of taking a “sag wagon” up the hill.
This is a particular memory for Penny and Jim because the mine is now used as a cultural space and they were able to attend a magnificent immersive light show inside the mine.
A Roman aqueduct
Jim particularly liked visiting Pont du Gard, a spectacularly well-preserved Roman aqueduct and UNESCO site. He adds that the museum there is particularly interesting.
An excellent tour leader: Tammy
Penny and Jim are especially enthusiastic about their tour leader, Tammy, who, they say, doesn’t just lead the group but also goes out of her way to make sure everyone is safe and enjoying themselves. On the tour in the Camargue, there were Australians and Swedes, but the Swedes couldn’t speak English. Tammy, who is multilingual, still was able to give them the information they needed.
Penny gives an example of a day when it started raining as they were cycling, and the river they needed to cross was rising quickly. Tammy changed the route at the last moment so that the group would cross a causeway instead. The problem was that it was very windy, and Penny couldn’t seem to make any headway, even when the other members of the group had reached the other side. Tammy rode back to where Penny was, turned and placed her hand on Penny’s back. Riding next to her, she pushed her, helping her to the end of the bridge.
How much you see
The distances on the Camargue route range from 18-33 miles per day. Jim sees this as the best way to see a country: “It’s not a race, but a ride. Our neighbors who are young, they’re in their 60s, they’ll go to Europe. They’ll race across the country. I don’t know if they see as much as we do … or learn as much. We stop for sights and places of interest. Our guides … will sit there and explain the surroundings, how this church was built or this castle was built … so you do learn a lot which is a lot of fun. But like I say, we’re not racing. You know, 30 miles is not very far in a full day.”
Life on the ship
Penny points out that while the cabins are quite small, they’re comfortable and clean, and they get cleaned every day. There’s storage space under the beds and in the small cabinet. She prefers twin beds because it’s easier in such a small space to get out of bed to go to the attached bathroom.
Both Penny and Jim love the meal format: all meals are included except, on some tours, one dinner per week. On the Camargue tour, the evening for dining out was in Arles. That gives guests the opportunity to sample the local cuisine.
But that’s not the only opportunity: normally guests pack a lunch to take along before starting on the day’s ride. However, since the group stops at a restaurant or bakery every day, guests can always buy food instead of (or in addition to!) eating the packed lunch.
In any case, the chef on board sources local ingredients as much as possible. The breakfast buffet offers a typical French breakfast with things like baguettes, croissants, cheese, etc. Penny mentioned on the last day that she missed her bacon and eggs for breakfast and the chef said “You should have told me earlier!” She had bacon and eggs for breakfast the next day.
The Camargue tour
Jim enjoys that the tours don’t go through the big cities but “I find it enjoyable to see what the people in the countryside … what they’re doing, how they’re building houses and stuff like that.”
Penny adds, “Provence is so interesting – so provincial – it has the historical value and also I guess it’s less populated and I like that.”
Easy Boat Bike Tours
So the Boat Bike Tours are easy because:
- You don’t have to pack and unpack each day.
- You don’t have to remember a route or even the names of places. You just follow the tour leader and enjoy the scenery and experiences as they come.
- You have lots of time to ride the route so you can take it easy!
- The tour leader takes care of you if needed.
- The tour leaders speak several languages.
- Twin beds (if you don’t opt for double beds) make it easy to visit the bathroom.
- All meals are taken care of except one dinner in Arles.
Kit, the interviewer, has taken two Boat Bike Tours so far and seems equally enthusiastic about them, exclaiming several times about how she wants to do the Camargue tour.
The podcast
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