3rd - 9th July 2016
Burgundy is heating up and summer is well and truly upon us, much to the delight of our all American charter group, the Gilmer family. An excellent group of people spanning from grandparents Gary and Marilyn all the way down to little Maggie, 5 years old and from the looks of it future boat pilot! Monday was of course the 4th of July, American Independence day, a day to celebrate as our guests certainly did, arriving to breakfast with their red, white and blue beads around their necks, themed socks, USA t-shirts, stars and stripes everywhere you can imagine. We even dug out the star spangled banner of our own to mark the occasion, replacing our slightly contentious Chilean flag representative of our Captain Francisco. The 4th of July wasn't our only celebration of the week with Charlie turning 11 on Friday. Captain's dinner was therefore enjoyed surrounded by balloons, or at least the sound of popping balloons as the kids delighted in jumping on them all. The evening was ended with a huge chocolate celebration cake of Chef Marc's creating, complete with firework candle bigger than Charlie's head, he never did stand much of a chance blowing it out, not for want of trying however!
All in all we had a very enjoyable week in the sun, kids playing all day long, off on long cycling adventures searching for football pitches and basketball courts, steering with Francisco, or out on tour with Andy, enjoying the adventurous activities they had signed up for. Adults staying behind during cruises showing us how it's meant to be done, relaxing like professionals and knocking the cocktails, aperitifs and beers back like they were going out of fashion. A really great week with a spectacularly nice group of people, a perfect note to end on before a passengerless week of maintenance in Auxerre..