Paris to Bruges Bike & Barge Cruise | 15 Days Premium

Day 1: Paris – Bougival
Check-in is from 1 p.m. in the centre of Paris. After the welcome by the captain, crew and tour leader, the barge sails straight through the city. You moor for the night in a suburb of Paris, have dinner under way and still have time for a short evening walk. Arriving a day or two early gives you room to enjoy Paris properly.

Day 2: Paris (Bougival) – Auvers-sur-Oise (42 km or 48 km)
After breakfast you ride quiet towpaths along the Seine and climb to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where the gardens of Le Nôtre open onto a magnificent view across Paris. A wooded stretch brings you to Conflans-Sainte-Honorine for a picnic on the pier or a drink on a terrace, then on past the striking Axe Majeur to Auvers-sur-Oise, where Vincent van Gogh spent his last days and where he and his brother Theo are buried. You can visit their graves in the village cemetery.

Day 3: Auvers-sur-Oise – Beaumont | Beaumont – Pont-Sainte-Maxence (46 km)
Breakfast on the move takes you to Beaumont, where you start riding upstream along the Oise. Around lunchtime you reach Chantilly: a spectacular château, the Musée Condé with one of the finest painting collections in France, a famous racecourse and the great royal stables. Afterwards you continue through the splendid old town of Senlis and the forests of Halatte to Pont-Sainte-Maxence.

Day 4: Pont-Sainte-Maxence – Compiègne (42 km or 54 km)
The Roman ruins at Champlieu ask for a little imagination but make a pleasant break early in the day. In the middle of the forest lies the little town of Pierrefonds and its castle. You then cross the Forêt de Compiègne, long a favourite royal hunting ground, before reaching Compiègne itself, whose grand architecture it owes to the proximity of Paris. The château gardens are worth a walk. Dinner tonight is ashore, in a restaurant of your choice.

Day 5: Compiègne – Pont l'Évêque (42 km or 52 km)
You ride into the northern edge of the forest of Compiègne to the Clairière de l'Armistice, where French and German generals signed the treaty that ended the First World War; the small museum tells the story well. Then you cross the Aisne, pass through the forest of Ourscamp and spend part of the afternoon in Noyon, home to one of the oldest cathedrals in France, before rejoining the barge at Pont l'Évêque.

Day 6: Pont l'Évêque – Haudival | Haudival – Péronne (52 km or 60 km)
The barge leaves the Oise and turns onto the Canal du Nord, planned in 1903 and only finished in 1966 to replace Napoleon's narrower Canal de Saint-Quentin. Over breakfast you cruise to Haudival, then ride through gently rolling open country to the town of Ham, along the Somme and through quiet villages to Péronne, with its intimate square, its church and its castle.

Day 7: Péronne
The barge stays put today, moored just outside this charming town with its intimate square, its church, its castle and the fascinating Grande Guerre museum. You have time to visit the museum, to shop, or simply to rest.

Day 8: Péronne – Ytres | Ytres – Havrincourt (42 km or 52 km)
The first stretch follows the valley of the Somme, then opens into sparsely populated rolling country towards Ruyaulcourt — the front line at the end of the First World War. Once everyone is back aboard, the barge passes through the tunnel of Ruyaulcourt, 4,350 metres long, under the watershed between the Somme and the Escaut. You spend the night at the summit of the Canal du Nord, moored beside farmland.

Day 9: Havrincourt – Arleux | Arleux – Pont Malin (44 km or 56 km)
Today's longer option passes the ruins of the abbey of Vaucelles. Both routes lead to Cambrai, once a Roman provincial capital and a major pilgrimage destination, with impressive restored fortifications built under Charles V. You then ride on to rural Arleux, famous for its smoked garlic, where the barge is waiting to sail you to the lock at Pont Malin.

Day 10: Pont Malin – Denain | Denain – Tournai (44 km or 56 km)
You start riding at Denain, through open farmland and old mining towns towards the French-Belgian border. Once in Belgium the route crosses the "white land", where limestone has been quarried since Roman times. Tournai is one of the oldest towns in Belgium: the Notre-Dame cathedral and the belfry, built around 1200, are both worth your time. Dinner tonight is ashore.

Day 11: Tournai – Oudenaarde (41 km or 50 km)
The barge now runs downstream along the Scheldt and, once past the language border, you are in Flanders and the spoken language changes. Oudenaarde, today's destination, sat on the border of the French and German empires and was witness and victim to many wars; its watchman "Hanske de Krijger" still stands on one of the finest town halls in Flanders. You visit it with a guide and see the famous tapestries up close.

Day 12: Oudenaarde – Ghent (51 km)
You keep following the river to Ghent, a lively university city that grew rich on textiles where the Lys and the Scheldt meet. Patrician houses, the Clothmakers' Hall of 1425 and St Bavo's Cathedral — home to Van Eyck's "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" — are among its sights, and a small boat trip takes you through the historic canals.

Day 13: Ghent – Bruges (49 km)
A flat, gentle day through the countryside of West Flanders brings you to Bruges. The "Pearl of Flanders" kept its medieval centre almost completely intact — in its heyday it was the second largest city in Europe after Paris, a centre of trade and art you can still walk through today.

Day 14: Bruges (38 km or 54 km)
The barge stays in Bruges. Optional rides through the pleasant countryside around the city are offered: out to the North Sea coast, or across to "Old" Zeeland in the Netherlands. You can equally spend the day in Bruges itself, in a museum or among the shops.

Day 15: Bruges
Disembarkation after breakfast, by 9 a.m.