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An Englishman Aboard: Discovering France in a Rowing Boat
From the author of Pardon My French and A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi, this is the charming and hilariously funny story of one man's attempt to travel the entire length of the Seine by boat
When Charles shows his friends the rowing boat he has spent the last six months building, he little realises the adventures that lie ahead. Several glasses of champagne later (it is New Year's Eve), he finds himself betting he will travel the entire length of the Seine from source to the sea in the next year and discover the true France.
But the reality proves somewhat more difficult than he had expected. As Charles sets sail into an unvarnished France on a variety of craft from steamers to police patrol boats to inflatables, he encounters truffle-thieving terriers and obsessive fishermen, grapples with strong rapids and stubborn cattle, and is nearly destroyed by a cheese so smelly it comes with its own health warning.
This is the charming and often hilarious story of Charles's Quixotic quest - and the most unique guide to the true France that you will find.
When Charles shows his friends the rowing boat he has spent the last six months building, he little realises the adventures that lie ahead. Several glasses of champagne later (it is New Year's Eve), he finds himself betting he will travel the entire length of the Seine from source to the sea in the next year and discover the true France.
But the reality proves somewhat more difficult than he had expected. As Charles sets sail into an unvarnished France on a variety of craft from steamers to police patrol boats to inflatables, he encounters truffle-thieving terriers and obsessive fishermen, grapples with strong rapids and stubborn cattle, and is nearly destroyed by a cheese so smelly it comes with its own health warning.
This is the charming and often hilarious story of Charles's Quixotic quest - and the most unique guide to the true France that you will find.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published June 6, 2013
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25 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 6, 2015
It wasn't hilariously funny as described in the blurb, but it wasn't a bad read. The plus points were mildly interesting, if forgettable, anecdotes, and the book was well-written. As a former yachtie, I did enjoy the use of slightly technical words but I wondered if they would throw other people off. Reminded me of my sailing days.
The author failed to engage me, and perhaps other readers, with his great enthusiasm for discovering the 'real' France by sailing the length of a river whose attractions didn't come across for me at all. Much as I enjoyed the sailing terms, I didn't enjoy the constant interjection of the author's French. It seemed redundant and a bit show-offy. Or is my total inadequacy with languages, despite six boring years of it in school and a lot of travelling showing? (Actually I'm good with food language. I can read menus in at least 10 languages, don't want to get fobbed off with horse meat when I wanted a beef steak. Yes, it happened).
I think you have to be upper-middle class, have a petite gite en Burgundy and know which beaujolais nouveau is worth drinking in order to really appreciate this book. It seemed more written for the insider than the plebs like me
Other Francophiles and enthusiasts of Peter Mayle's Provence books might enjoy this one a lot more than I did.
2.5 stars.
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The author failed to engage me, and perhaps other readers, with his great enthusiasm for discovering the 'real' France by sailing the length of a river whose attractions didn't come across for me at all. Much as I enjoyed the sailing terms, I didn't enjoy the constant interjection of the author's French. It seemed redundant and a bit show-offy. Or is my total inadequacy with languages, despite six boring years of it in school and a lot of travelling showing? (Actually I'm good with food language. I can read menus in at least 10 languages, don't want to get fobbed off with horse meat when I wanted a beef steak. Yes, it happened).
I think you have to be upper-middle class, have a petite gite en Burgundy and know which beaujolais nouveau is worth drinking in order to really appreciate this book. It seemed more written for the insider than the plebs like me
Other Francophiles and enthusiasts of Peter Mayle's Provence books might enjoy this one a lot more than I did.
2.5 stars.
Leafmarks
BookLikes
March 6, 2014
BOTWBBC Blurb: Charles Timoney is an English writer, with a French wife, living in France.
After showing a group of friends the rowing boat he has spent the last six months building, Charles - possibly unwisely - accepts a challenge to travel the entire length of the River Seine from source to the sea, using the boat where he can, to discover the true France.
But it proves rather more difficult than he imagined. Not all of the Seine is navigable by rowing boat, so he sets sail into an unvarnished France on a variety of craft, hitching lifts in everything from a converted Parisian tourist boat to a sailing boat with no mast. He even tries out an amphibious vehicle.
Along the way he encounters Stèphane (a carp fisherman with a very strange habit), grapples with rapids and stubborn cattle, rescues a couple when their sailing dinghy capsizes, and discovers that rowing in the dark is more frightening than he first thought.
Written by Charles Timoney Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Reader: Mark Heap Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.
1: Charles - possibly unwisely - accepts a challenge to travel the entire length of the River Seine from source to the sea.
2: Having located the source of the Seine, further along the river the author takes his first purposeful strokes towards the English Channel.
3: With the Seine now officially declared navigable and too dangerous for a rowing boat, Charles Timoney continues his journey in a converted Parisian tourist boat.
4: On his quest to travel the entire length of the River Seine, author Charles Timoney meets Stephane, a carp fisherman with a very strange habit.
5: Continuing along the Seine, Charles Timoney tries out an amphicar and stops off in Rouen.
Sequana (pronounce sek-oo-ANN-a) is the Gaulish Goddess of the River Seine. The source of the Seine was called the Fontes Sequanae (the Springs of Sequana) by the Gauls, and they built a healing shrine there. When the Romans took over the area, they built temples to Sequana and continued her worship. Her waters were believed to heal physical infirmities, especially diseases of the eye. Her name means “the fast-flowing one” and is also seen as Sequanna, Siquanna, and Secuana. Source: http://www.goddessaday.com/2008/04/pa...The height of self-indulgence.
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin
This failed on both scores. NEXT
June 16, 2018
From BBC radio 4 - Book of the week:
Charles Timoney is an English writer, with a French wife, living in France.
After showing a group of friends the rowing boat he has spent the last six months building, Charles - possibly unwisely - accepts a challenge to travel the entire length of the River Seine from source to the sea, using the boat where he can, to discover the true France.
But it proves rather more difficult than he imagined. Not all of the Seine is navigable by rowing boat, so he sets sail into an unvarnished France on a variety of craft, hitching lifts in everything from a converted Parisian tourist boat to a sailing boat with no mast. He even tries out an amphibious vehicle.
Along the way he encounters Stèphane (a carp fisherman with a very strange habit), grapples with rapids and stubborn cattle, rescues a couple when their sailing dinghy capsizes, and discovers that rowing in the dark is more frightening than he first thought.
Written by Charles Timoney
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Reader: Mark Heap
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02m...
Charles Timoney is an English writer, with a French wife, living in France.
After showing a group of friends the rowing boat he has spent the last six months building, Charles - possibly unwisely - accepts a challenge to travel the entire length of the River Seine from source to the sea, using the boat where he can, to discover the true France.
But it proves rather more difficult than he imagined. Not all of the Seine is navigable by rowing boat, so he sets sail into an unvarnished France on a variety of craft, hitching lifts in everything from a converted Parisian tourist boat to a sailing boat with no mast. He even tries out an amphibious vehicle.
Along the way he encounters Stèphane (a carp fisherman with a very strange habit), grapples with rapids and stubborn cattle, rescues a couple when their sailing dinghy capsizes, and discovers that rowing in the dark is more frightening than he first thought.
Written by Charles Timoney
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Reader: Mark Heap
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02m...
April 11, 2014
An enjoyable little story about one man and his boat along the Seine. The author throws in bits of French history, snippets of his life and how an Englishman gets along living in France for many years. There wasn't much actual story but it was fun to read nevertheless. We learn a bit about the river, a bit about him and get an impression of French life. I didn't feel he was very engaged with his quest, and I felt the actual rowing of the river was fairly unimportant to him. I got a bit of fun out of this book but don't expect great literature.
June 13, 2013
This smacks of "Lets think of something I can do, so I can then write a book about it."
January 12, 2016
Charles Timoney, an Englishman living in France, builds a rowing boat from a kit and then, in a moment of madness accepts a New Year's eve challenge from friends to travel the length of the River Seine. This is the tale of his journey, on which he is accompanied most of the way by his longsuffering French wife Inès.
The book is a travelogue written in a lightly humorous style with insights into French culture, life, language and history. The River Seine is long (470miles/776km). Timoney writes about many interesting places along its route from its source in Burgundy, which I have visited, on through Paris, finally reaching the sea at Le Havre. My major complaint is the lack of any map or maps in the version I read (paperback - not sure about other versions), though the publishers included several unnecessary, I felt, grainy photographs. The only really useful picture was that of the coypu, le ragolin, an animal we've seen several times but failed until now to identify. (Apparently, like the mink in the UK it's an introduced species that escaped and now thrives in the wild.) As a Francophile I wanted to know where Timoney was so I could add them to our 'must visit list so had to read the book with a map in hand! The confusion is compounded by the fact that he seems to retrace his steps in order to find transport, especially around Paris, quite understandable in the circumstances. If they had printed even some simple maps this would have helped, but without it at times I found it rather irritating!
I enjoyed this book, revisiting places we have been and learning about many others, some of which are on our 'must visit' list. I've also learned plenty of new French words, phrases and colloquialisms to try out, I hope. One of my favourites has to be: il est tombé dans les pommes - he has fallen in the apples, colloquial for he has fainted, instead of using the more formal verb s'évanouir, which I didn't know either. Another favourite was the expression un violon d'Ingres - a hobby, Ingres being a famous French painter rather than a musician.
Did Timoney finish the challenge? Of course he did. That surely isn't a plot spoiler! However this book is more about the travel and the people than about his little rowing boat which was the cause of the challenge. Understandably other river transport was sought and the rowing boat hardly used after Paris as the size of other river traffic made it far too dangerous, the exception being a short row from the open sea to the shore at the mouth of the Seine, to formally finish the journey.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which I first heard in an abridged version on BBC Radio 4 in their morning Book of the Week slot. This is Timoney's third book but the others whilst being about culture, language and people are, I understand, less about travel and the type of book that can be easily dipped into rather than read cover to cover. My husband has enjoyed both. Perhaps I'll give them a go!
The book is a travelogue written in a lightly humorous style with insights into French culture, life, language and history. The River Seine is long (470miles/776km). Timoney writes about many interesting places along its route from its source in Burgundy, which I have visited, on through Paris, finally reaching the sea at Le Havre. My major complaint is the lack of any map or maps in the version I read (paperback - not sure about other versions), though the publishers included several unnecessary, I felt, grainy photographs. The only really useful picture was that of the coypu, le ragolin, an animal we've seen several times but failed until now to identify. (Apparently, like the mink in the UK it's an introduced species that escaped and now thrives in the wild.) As a Francophile I wanted to know where Timoney was so I could add them to our 'must visit list so had to read the book with a map in hand! The confusion is compounded by the fact that he seems to retrace his steps in order to find transport, especially around Paris, quite understandable in the circumstances. If they had printed even some simple maps this would have helped, but without it at times I found it rather irritating!
I enjoyed this book, revisiting places we have been and learning about many others, some of which are on our 'must visit' list. I've also learned plenty of new French words, phrases and colloquialisms to try out, I hope. One of my favourites has to be: il est tombé dans les pommes - he has fallen in the apples, colloquial for he has fainted, instead of using the more formal verb s'évanouir, which I didn't know either. Another favourite was the expression un violon d'Ingres - a hobby, Ingres being a famous French painter rather than a musician.
Did Timoney finish the challenge? Of course he did. That surely isn't a plot spoiler! However this book is more about the travel and the people than about his little rowing boat which was the cause of the challenge. Understandably other river transport was sought and the rowing boat hardly used after Paris as the size of other river traffic made it far too dangerous, the exception being a short row from the open sea to the shore at the mouth of the Seine, to formally finish the journey.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which I first heard in an abridged version on BBC Radio 4 in their morning Book of the Week slot. This is Timoney's third book but the others whilst being about culture, language and people are, I understand, less about travel and the type of book that can be easily dipped into rather than read cover to cover. My husband has enjoyed both. Perhaps I'll give them a go!
August 24, 2014
I should have know better. When the review on the fly leaf says 'I laughed out loud', I should have known that it wouldn't. It is described as 'A wonderful view of France as seen from the water, and through the eyes of a genuinely funny writer'. This is generous praise in all aspects. It's a mildly interesting view of France, and a writer who occasionally makes you smile. But I guess that in the main, that is what most supposedly 'genuinely funny writers' do.
I misread the early chapter and read this book assuming that the author had agreed to row the entire length of the Seine in the little boat that he has constructed in his garage. He hadn't. The bet was that he would row bits of it, and find other transport for the parts that were too tricky to row. He did that.
And therein lies the description of the book. It's his account of that journey.There were some interesting observations on the French language, and equally pertinent descriptions of a few villages, towns and some local customs and place names. Beyond that there's not too much to add.
The style is very easy to read, and it makes a useful holiday book, that you can pick up and put down randomly, and never lose any essential thread of the tale. You could easily read it in two or three sittings. It took me longer, well, just because it does.
It was a pleasant read. Nothing nasty to say about it. Not great literature nor anything to test your intellect. Just a nice little book.
I misread the early chapter and read this book assuming that the author had agreed to row the entire length of the Seine in the little boat that he has constructed in his garage. He hadn't. The bet was that he would row bits of it, and find other transport for the parts that were too tricky to row. He did that.
And therein lies the description of the book. It's his account of that journey.There were some interesting observations on the French language, and equally pertinent descriptions of a few villages, towns and some local customs and place names. Beyond that there's not too much to add.
The style is very easy to read, and it makes a useful holiday book, that you can pick up and put down randomly, and never lose any essential thread of the tale. You could easily read it in two or three sittings. It took me longer, well, just because it does.
It was a pleasant read. Nothing nasty to say about it. Not great literature nor anything to test your intellect. Just a nice little book.
December 5, 2022
It's somewhat deceptive to have in the title "Discovering France in a Rowing Boat" As this book documents the author's Journey, over a 12 month along the length of the Seine. The author travels from the Seine's source (St-Germain-Source-Seine) to it's end at the seaport of Le Havre on the English Channel. His motive is not to discover France at all, it's to win a bet he makes with friends at a convivial soiree he has at his home. In achieving his goal, his modes of river transport are varied - from using his own kit built rowing boat, barges, River Police (Brigade Fluviale) and Bow Rider (boat with outboard motor) to name a few. The author has resided in France for 20+ years and has a fair grasp of French language and history and the book is peppered with useful info/comments on the French vernacular and historical facts of France's past. This to me is the saving grace of this book.
I would have given this work a 4 star rating if (a) there had been some maps detailing his journey upon the Seine, especially as the author remarks not many of his countrymen can readily locate the Seine on a map of France (b) there are numerous photos used throughout the book and most are of poor quality (c) I couldn't warm to the author - whether he is or not, the author to me - comes across as condescending with a tendency to be rather mocking. Mocking to some genuine French people who are willing to assist him on his venture.
I would have given this work a 4 star rating if (a) there had been some maps detailing his journey upon the Seine, especially as the author remarks not many of his countrymen can readily locate the Seine on a map of France (b) there are numerous photos used throughout the book and most are of poor quality (c) I couldn't warm to the author - whether he is or not, the author to me - comes across as condescending with a tendency to be rather mocking. Mocking to some genuine French people who are willing to assist him on his venture.
June 5, 2018
A pleasant book on travelling in France with the expected encounters with exotic French natives.
February 8, 2024
Finished this a few years ago and never reviewed. Good French travel book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews