Englishman Aboard: Discovering France in a Rowing Boat An

Product Description

Charles Timoney can't resist a challenge. So when, after a few glasses of Champagne, he bets his friends that he'll travel the entire length of the Seine in a rowing boat he's been building in his garage, he can't back down. His English honour is at stake, after all.

It is a journey that will take him from source to sea, via stubborn cattle, truffle-hunting terriers, amorous carp fishermen, Roman goddesses, drunken choirs, river policemen and a cheese so smelly it's forbidden to take it on public transport. Along the way, he discovers a France that most of us don't see, and finds there's nothing quite like messing about in a boat (or, failing that, a steamer, Batobus, inflatable and amphibious car . . .).

'There are new year's resolutions and then there are those rash decisions that come after the last bottle has been drunk on the last night of the year. The journey down the Seine that Charles Timoney describes in his third book about France stemmed from the latter . . . a charming story of life along the river . . . that lingers in the mind.' Sunday Times

'A wonderful view of France as seen from the water, and through the eyes of a genuinely funny writer - I laughed out loud.' Philip Marsden, author of The Levelling Sea