
Buy a 90-year-old Dutch canal barge and cruise the canals and rivers of France. Eat snails. Drink Burgundy. Sounds like a retirement dream. Sometimes. In On a Barge in France Harvey Schwartz tells of the seven summers he and his wife, Sandra Hamilton, spent on Hoop Doet Leven on the French waterways. Each chapter presents a vignette of French country life and experiences in the unique linear village of international bargees traveling extremely slowly through the most beautiful, historic and mind boggling areas of France.

Sample Amazon reviews
First, a warning: This book may be hazardous to your (economic) health, because when you read it you may well start thinking about buying a canal barge and following Harvey Schwartz and his wife, Sandra, to the waterways of France. This warm, self-deprecating, picaresque tour of the Gallic countryside will show you a very different side of France from the familiar tourist centers like Paris, the Riviera and Lyon. This is a part of the country that is in many ways more authentic, and certainly far more varied, than what most English-speaking travelers experience. Informal, humorous and perceptive, the author can move from laugh-out-loud humor to poignant reflection in a sentence. Read this book and be transported.
This book, written in a light, humorous hand will enlighten any reader with the juxtaposition of ” a normal American” couple living in France, but not as tourists. Traveling along age old canals, in their own barge, they stop and write about their many new experiences. From meeting other boaters, learning the French bakery lingo, visiting farmers, winemakers, cheese makers, trebuchets and the fabulous food it is all very different and entertaining. I rate this book 5 stars, you’ll want to purchase many for friends for the holidays and let them experience first hand the many great adventures of Harvey and Sandra.
A funny joyous adventure!