There is a particular feeling to the first cruise of the season. The ropes come off the bollards at Moret-sur-Loing with a satisfying thud, the engine settles into its note, and the river opens ahead — wide and still and entirely ours. The trees are not quite fully out yet in early April. The willows trail pale gold in the current. The herons are back on their favorite posts. France is waking up.

This was how The Randle’s 2026 season began — a six-night Diner’s Cruise, Moret-sur-Loing to Auxerre, heading upstream through one of the most quietly magnificent waterways in the country.

Sunday: Moret-sur-Loing and the Captain’s Welcome
It rained on arrival day, which felt entirely correct for early April. Our guests came from Paris airport— collected and driven south through the forest of Fontainebleau in the April showers — and stepped aboard to champagne and the particular warmth that a well-lit barge creates against an evening.

Moret-sur-Loing is where Alfred Sisley lived and painted, and where Robert Louis Stevenson came by canoe and fell in love — with the town, with the river, eventually with a woman he met in a nearby village, and who inspired him to write An Inland Voyage. Standing on deck in the April dusk it is easy to see why both men stayed. Fontainebleau, 500 years older than Versailles, 1,500 rooms, Napoleon’s private apartments still furnished as he left them, and then the Captain’s Dinner aboard: chef Gael, premier-cru Burgundy, the candles lit, the season properly under way.

Monday: The Counts of Champagne
The first full day of cruising is always the one that converts people. You watch the moment it happens — usually somewhere around the first lock, when the barge fills the chamber and the water rises and the world narrows to old stone walls and sky

We left the Seine and turned onto the Yonne, heading south, the river narrowing and quietening as the morning went on. By afternoon we were moored at Missy-sur-Yonne, with time for a tour to Provins — UNESCO-listed medieval town, the great trading hub of the Counts of Champagne, where cloth merchants from Flanders met the silk routes of the Mediterranean. The ramparts are intact. The underground galleries are intact. The whole place feels like it is resting between centuries. Dinner back at the mooring at Le retour aux sources, a riverside auberge, simple and warm with swans on the water outside.

Tuesday: Sens and a Michelin Star
In April the Yonne runs high and fast — upstream progress has a satisfying purposefulness to it. By mid-morning we were approaching Sens, its Gothic cathedral rising above the rooftops in a way that takes a moment to take in properly. This is the first great Gothic cathedral in Europe, built before Notre-Dame, before Chartres. Thomas Becket sheltered here in 1164, exiled from England. The town has been busy with history ever since.

The evening was at La Madeleine, Patrick Gauthier’s Michelin-starred restaurant above the river. He is a chef who begins his day at the market and lets the products tell him what to cook. In early April that means the first asparagus, the last of the winter roots, and whatever arrived that morning. It was exactly right.

Wednesday: Villeneuve-sur-Yonne and the Impressionists
A morning cruise through the bends and reaches of the Yonne brought us to Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, founded by Louis VII in 1163 and still wearing its medieval bones proudly: the fortified towers, the moat, the cobbled market square. Francis Picabia painted the poplars here in 1906. You can find the same angle easily enough — the light hasn’t changed.

We walked the afternoon away and stopped at Maison Dosnon, where they have been making gingerbread from local honey since 1920, which may be the best possible reason to visit a town.

the old 17th-century barge depot on the quay converted to a restaurant by actress and dancer Leslie Caron, with the river sliding past the windows in the dark.

Thursday: The Vineyards of Joigny
The river narrows further as you push south and the valley steepens on either side. Joigny appeared around a bend in the afternoon, its ancient ramparts stacked up above the waterline. Turner sketched these same banks in 1802, and you can see why he stopped: the fortified gate towers, the river bend, the town climbing the hillside behind. The vineyards here produce a pinot gris that was a favourite of Louis XIV, which is a recommendation hard to argue with.

Dinner at Le Rive Gauche — chef Jérôme Joubert combining local cuisine with a careful mastery of flavour and texture that makes the meal feel both rooted and inventive. A very good Thursday.

Friday: Auxerre — City of Art and History
The last day of cruising. We stopped for lunch at Gurgy, its little quay empty and peaceful at this time of year, before the final reach into Auxerre. The city’s cathedral — St Étienne, 11th to 16th century, dominating the skyline from the river — announced our arrival a long time before we tied up. Auxerre has been a prosperous town since Roman times, the birthplace of Saint Germain, and it still carries that history lightly: cobbled streets, 15th-century timber-framed buildings, a bustling market square that has been here in one form or another for two thousand years.

A private tour of the cathedral and historic centre, then dinner at Un air de famille — Camille and Dimitri doing what they do, which is take local produce seriously and make it look effortless. A fine last evening.

Saturday: Au Revoir
Breakfast was slow and nobody was in a hurry to get into the transfer car. That is always the right sign.

Six nights, Moret-sur-Loing to Auxerre. Sisley’s river, Turner’s river, Stevenson’s river. The first cruise of the season — and, as they always are, one of the best.

The Diner’s River Barge Cruise runs six nights on the rivers Seine and Yonne for up to four guests on exclusive private charter. Paris transfers included. Dates available through to October 2026.

View the full itinerary and 2026 rates 

Tim Harrold is owner and captain of the Randle, a beautiful and classically styled river boat fitted with two en-suite cabins and all the modern facilities to travel in comfort. Tim offers private barge tours on the picturesque Burgundy Canal du Nivernais and river Yonne. A luxury cruise with Tim and his crew includes gourmet cuisine, fine wine, and guided tours by private car to vineyards and chateaux. Learn more about Edge Charter and barge trips on the Randle along Burgundy's canals and rivers here. Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.