This book is as much a treasure to the boat owner as a glass of Pinot Noir to the discerning wine lover. It takes you through the canals of Burgundy, detailing places of interest which can be visited from the canals. With advice on buses, cycle trips and walks. Rich in history, this area of France needs time to explore and without this book it would be easy to miss the history dating from Caesar's Gallic wars to Middle Ages' architecture and to modern times. For example the gates on the staircase of locks on the Canal du Nivernais are all different because of destruction in WWII by the Resistance to prevent the German Army from using it as a supply line. The town of Gien - 80% destroyed by the Germans in 1940, and by the Allies in 1944 - has been harmoniously restored using traditional brick patterning and chevrons. It is this sort of information which makes this book not only different from other canal guides but gives a unique tast of France - just a sip of the flavours of beautiful Burgundy.

When Brenda met her second husband John, she had never sailed before. John introduced her to the sailing life. She says she was like Mole in "Wind in the Willows" and soon came to agree that there was nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In this, Brenda's second book about the sailing life, they take possession of a new boat in Holland and sail through Holland and Belgium to France. The book describes their journey as they begin to get used to a new boat in a new country, and gives a fascinating insight into the the places they pass through, describing their feelings as they develop, from the early nervous excitement through trepidation to confidence and even aplomb.