Le Boat and Delicacies of Aquitaine

From Marmande, we took a taxi to the Le Boat base in Le Mas d'Agenais. I had planned to use Uber but it turns out there aren't too many drivers in Marmande. It cost €30 for the 20 minute taxi ride.

Le Boat base in Le Mas d'Agenais. It's next to a lock so you can practice before leaving the base.

We rented a Royal Mystique (ours was #22)--a 2-cabin, 2 bath very spacious boat.

There is a wheel in the cabin in case of inclement weather prohibiting driving from the top deck. On the top deck, we had a bimini (useful to shield the sun but we had to take it down to pass under most of the bridges), seat cushions and a BBQ (which we did not use).

Large seating area. There was a TV and a CD player.

Le Boat advertises fully equipped galleys but our definition of fully equipped differs. The galley was stocked with pots & pans, dishes, silverware and 2 kitchen towels but there were no disposable items. No sponge, dish detergent, paper towels, cling wrap or aluminum foil. There was only 1 garbage bag for our 1 week trip. No salt or pepper either. Be forewarned and bring your own.

The forward cabin had a double bed.

The aft cabin could be made into 2 single beds or a single double bed. 

There were a few hangers in a small hanging area and shelves but no drawers. There were no outlets in the cabins. Coming from the US, you will need to bring adapters to use for European type outlets on the boat.

There were 2 bathrooms. No soaps or shampoo were provided. Our bathrooms had no hooks or anyplace to hang towels. Only 1 roll of toilet paper was supplied and there was 1 bath towel and 1 hand towel per passenger. I had to ask for additional toilet paper and an extra towel per person before we left the home base.

We were given a quick overview of the boat then taken for an instructional drive. Fortunately, my husband is an experienced boater and had no problems with backing up and mooring.

The boat rental was over $4,100 for 1 week. You would think the supplies wouldn't be so spartan. We rented bicycles for $63/bike/week and wifi for $77 for the week. Connectivity wasn't too bad. We also got the "package" for $659 which included CDW, 30 hours of fuel (we used only 23 hours), 1 bicycle and cleaning. All the rest were in addition to the base rate so the total rental was over $5,100.

2018 05 14