From Here to Paris: Get Laid Off, Buy a Barge in France, Take it to Paris

I didn't want to put this book down or have it end! Cris has a certain style of writing that is so entertaining. Perhaps his "artist's eye" helps him describe people, things & events in such a charming way, just like his paintings. I have long had the "dream" to do something similar: find, buy & fix up an old canal barge, so reading of Cris & Linda's adventures (and mis-adventures) was fascinating & illuminating. I highly recommend this book as a good "read" whether or not you want to emulate them. The occasional misspelling or grammatical "glitch" was not enough to spoil my complete enjoyment of a great story!

From Here to Paris is an adventure and a funny read. I loved it! This three-part story is relatable, hysterical and heartfelt.

Hammond's talent as an illustrator and cartoonist comes across in his writing, especially in the characters he introduces. For example (cartoon included), "Bouda was the acknowledged bon vivant and 'sexy guy' of the Water Company atelier crew. It was his responsibility to keep up the reputation for lechery that the Water Company team had worked so hard to achieve. No matter how cold it got in the winter, no matter how many layers of fleece, wool and down the day called for, most of Bouda's chest hair would be on prominent display to warm women's hearts and drive them wild. He knew that his gift of sexiness was not his alone to covet or conceal."

His sharp insights, wit and sense of humor adds great luster and dimension to the telling of this tale.

Get Laid Off: "Until the day that I sat down at my computer, punched in my password and discovered I'd been locked out, there'd been no pressing reason to start questioning my odds of survival."

Buy a Barge in France: "That awful noise came rumbling through the boat until suddenly there was a CLUNK and BANG and a sound I hadn't heard since the time in high school when, on a dare, I threw my dad's car into "Park" on the Bayshore freeway."

Take it to Paris: "Parisians had created a city that is a work of art. Not untouchable art to be placed on a wall or a pedestal, but art to be lived in, accessible to all who walked its streets. I'd finally found a place where art was essential. Here, everything from the lamp-posts to the Louvre, revealed an artist's heart. It was the first time I could believe that being an artist was worthwhile, and that caring about art, just for the joy it gave, was good enough."

This memoir is a work of art. A great read.

The book is interesting,but at times I am turned off by the writers off style of writing: one minute beautiful descriptions of scenery worthy of the best travel writers,the next you would think hes ghost writing a 3 stooges movie. It's almost like 2 people wrote the book. The two styles clash so much that at times its unsettling. He cant decide if hes the dorky baby boomers dad with the corny joke, or a paul thoruex protege. I dont hate the book, it's just that I wish the writing was more consistent and less Jekyll and hyde.

3.75*

“Tell us what you’ve seen in far away forgotten lands” (The Moody Blues)

Cris loses his job and has to rethink his life. His first new venture is to be out on the water in California, snapping photos of the yachts passing by in true paparazzo fashion and then selling the yachting community photos of themselves and their boats. Incredibly, he makes a go of this venture, but something nevertheless is calling him to France.

And it is a ‘for sale’ ad for “Baby”, a barge, that catches his eye. Linda, his wife, is enthused by the idea of spending part of the year cruising at a leisurely pace through France. Ditto their dog, Sarah. And so it is off on a reconnaissance mission to St Jean de Losne near Dijon, which is the barge capital of France (you can’t say you don’t learn anything when you read our blogposts!). But it is not Baby that really captures his heart but Phaedra.

Once Phaedra is renovated and adapted to their taste the adventure can begin. You will discover the difference between Tjalks and Luxemotors and understand the importance of bow thrusters. You will glide along the canals (the French canal system incidentally began in 1642), enjoying the passing scenery and areas of interest. You will learn to navigate the Freycinet lock that can hold only one barge at a time, or head for the Canal du Centre (challenging for the best barge drivers – or should that be pilots?). From the setting point of view it is a wonderfully apt memoir to transport the reader to France, in true tripfiction fashion and #literarywanderlust.

There are drawings and cartoons to punctuate the text (the author is a trained illustrator) and some wonderfully pertinent observations.

Turning to memoir writing is now a very common pursuit when a life changing event happens. Peter Mayle was one of the first true chroniclers of moving away from all that is familiar (to Provence); Chris Stewart too, in Driving over Lemons (Andalucia) captured the imagination of what could be possible if one had the drive (no pun intended). From Here to Paris is certainly well written, but I felt in some ways that I was looking at holiday snaps enthusiastically shown to me by someone who I didn’t know very well, I could appreciate the colourful encounters and beautiful scenery but there was a little too much detail packed in. There were a few too many backstories of people he met along the way which turned the story into even more of a meander.

I do wonder whether this memoir will appeal more to the American readership rather than the Europeans, who in the main will have a smattering of French. Thus, recounting exchanges with a French waiter, where he says Je suis femme (intending to say he is hungry) kind of fell flat.. yes, it might have been funny to say he was a woman… but…

Overall, a nicely written memoir that will transport you to France and will particularly appeal to people who have an interest in barges (as he says himself, this is a memoir of “pushing 26 tons of riveted iron through France to Paris“).

If you want a fun, funny vicarious trip through the canals of France, read this book! Couldn't put it down. Cris manages for find humor in some of the most frustrating moments of barge ownership in a foreign country. Not only is he a talented author, but he is an amazing artist too!

Having just returned from boating in France, Chis' book caught my interest. While reading about his boating adventures and challenges seemed too familiar, what I most found in his book was an engaging chronicle--always sincere and often hilarious--of a time of transition in his life. He's a talented writer and story teller. Hope this isn't his only book.

This book is just such good fun. We follow the fortunes of Cris and Linda as they face a life-changing decision and make the momentous move from California to France where they pursue their dream of living on a boat in the French waterways. The writing is fresh, compelling, funny and at times poignant and we laugh and cry along with Cris as he negotiates his way though the vagaries of the French language, dodgy mechanics, hellish canal locks and engine failures, meeting along the way a whole host of river-dwelling characters. Life in France doesn't turn out to be all wine and cheese on the boat-deck by pretty little villages, but there is enough of that to make the adventure worthwhile. Recommended.

This is a wonderful read! Truly hilarious!

Funny, funny, and the descriptions of the people are first class. The stories are really first class. Not some canned, commercially produced thriller, but a real life tale of an American on a French canal. Great stuff. Check out this guys cartoons also. They are really a laugh a minute.

This is a good read, funny and bold.