Every now and then, while tootling throughout France on a boat, you come across something fascinating. Well, almost every day actually. But since I am stuck in Migennes awaiting some work on Liberty, I have to wait for the fascination to arrive here, to moor up, and become discoverable. I can't go cruising anywhere just yet while I await some electrical diagnostics, so instead I take a daily walk under the railway bridge to the Migennes basin to see what's what ...

The way I tell it, the book Against The Current basically fell into being. It was the result of my blogging during the year Liz and I spent living in board and cruising the French inland waterways. But there's more to it than that. I enjoyed writing the blogs and sharing our adventures with an unseen audience, and the encouraging feedback kept me writing. So thank you to those who sent warm fuzzies; I couldn't have done it without you. How the blogs became an...

I've been lying on my back here in France for the last few days. I know you're thinking: what a lazy so-and-so, that Liz has had to go back to formerly-EU Britain to work, and there's old Bodders just kicking back, wine in hand. Tchah. If only. I lie on my back on a four-wheeled trolley underneath Liberty, dressed in overalls and with beanie, face mask, goggles and ear-defenders, as I kick back with grinder in hand, smoothing down flaky anti-fouling. Michelangel...

As we crawled along bumper-to-bumper on the Paris peripherique, I thought I might have to rewrite a whole section of my book, the part where I rave about how great the French roads are and what a pleasure it is to drive in France. In Against The Current, I talked about near-empty roads, excellent autoroutes (motorways) - the surfaces if which are superb and where the traffic flows smoothly - and generally polite drivers wherever you go. But maybe I should have ...

The upside of bad weather is that Liz and I don't feel guilty about not working on the boat. Sanding, scraping, priming and painting is on hold today as the weather once again turns as nasty as gangs of opposing football fans meeting head-on in Lille. (Don't you love it when the media provides new analogies almost daily?) And so, with an unusual lightness in our hearts we headed to the supermarche, the bricolage, and the laverie, leaving Liberty languishing in...