November 2004 - We buy our own canal boat in France

After experiencing travel on the canals and rivers of France in 2002 on our friends boat, in July 2004 we made the decision to buy our own canal boat. Many hours were spent on the internet looking at boat brokers and hire companies and in November 2004 we found what we wanted. The decision was made not to travel over to France because of the time and cost, we had previously visited the marina it was moored in so proceeded to buy it from photos and information posted on the net.

We had the boat taken out of the water and surveyed and after receiving the report decided that Courlis would become part of the family. I guess we were lucky with the condition of the boat as when we finally arrived in France it was every bit as good as we hoped for the cost. On seeing some of the other boats listed for sale which didn't turn out as good as the photos we decided that maybe we had been naive but lucky.

Courlis is an ex hire boat which had been privately owned. She has a forward and aft cabin, toilet and shower, a galley with sink and cupboards and a gas stove with oven. The roof slides back over the salon and driving area.



As soon as the sale went through we booked our airfare for May 2005. The only item on Courlis was a kettle and the matresses so we decided that we would take some items from home and purchase what else we needed when we got there.
We packed all these items in a large box and had it sent by air freight to be picked up in Paris where we would hire a car and drive down to St Jean de Losne.



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