Eating Sensibly on your Camping Vacation in Burgundy.

Having no bread to supply, I swiftly close the window. On an antique oak sideboard in the key salon hostesses Fanny and Barbara have laid out a breakfast of granolas, yogurt, and fresh fruit. While I was still gazing at the ceiling of my cabin, Captain Lee had been in the town of Auxerre purchasing fresh baguettes, croissants and agony chocolate. La Belle poque is one of a few luxury canal barges operated in France by Western european Waterways. The salon is hunter green, rose and mahogany, with comfy banquettes and vases of fresh-cut flowers. Burgundy grapes. There are a sundeck, Jacuzzi, sauna, fitness studio, and bikes for guests to ride the canal trails. It is a fine fall day in France, still summer in the afternoons, with nights that supply a crisp memory-jogger of winter to come. Nick, our guide, had picked us up in Paris the day before in front of the Hotel Ampre. After meeting the crew and getting settled into our cabins, we explo red the cobblestone streets and trendy shops of Auxerre. At the junction of the Canal du Nivernais and the Stream Yonne, Auxerre was a critical city on the traditional north-south road through France. Many of us I meet are persuaded that camping vacations are still hosted in stormy fields, where food is tough to cook as compact stoves fail to light in the wet weather conditions. The Protein The key protein in the area is the Carollais meat cattle, and as such carnivores are warranted massive rich portions. Coq au Vin follows an identical formula, only with chicken rather than meat. There are a great many other meat if you are not a chicken or meat eater, diverse hams, hare, calf head and even some brook fish generally poached in white wine, with bacon, onions, garlic and butter. La Belle poque slides into a chamber to rest while a collection of gates at every end closes so the water level can be lowered. At Captain Lee's call he comes out to control the gates.

Because canal barges were initially pony drawn, poplar trees were planted on the way to defend the horses from the sun. Nick takes us to St-Bris le Vineux, a little wine town above a web of medieval passages. At the stone farm ( complete along with satellite television dish ) of Mr. Bersan, we descend into a traditional cavern for a winetasting.