Hi, We, myself and my wife live afloat, our home is a 19.95m barge. We came over The Channel in 2008, and like what we found. 
We winter moor in Burgundy, south of Dijon, keeping snug and warm.
Summer we are generally somewhere in France on the rivers and canal system.
Obviously our lifestyle has different problems, and benefits, than folk living in four walls.
Anyone else out there in the same boat? 
I wish!
My shipwright used to say “Chris, you didn’t have to buy a boatyard to go sailing” I have a notion to crew on boats making their way thru’ the FR canal system, esp ‘cut the corner’ into the Med, from Le Havre, unstep the mast at Rouen and emerge at Sete.
If you come across anyone that needs another hand on board, for trips like that, please hail me.
Or someone wants to have a run ashore for a while and need ‘guardiennage’.
You are very welcome here, I would have loved to do that, if you find a very good place is there a limit you are allowed to stay? If so, I can see the only drawback would be if you found a really nice spot and made friends.
It is a bit like that at the camping car place in our village where there is a very large field down to the river. They are only supposed to stop for 72 hours but many stay longer and I have made friends as I often take the dogs down there for a wander.
Hello David
Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.
Most livaboard boaters take a Winter Mooring for the period October to April. We return to the same one each year, others spend each winter at different places.
Then in the summer become slightly nomadic.
Stopping a long time at different places? Some moorings charge, especially if water and electricity are provided, often on a “by the day”, so folk tend to move on after a few days. Quays with no facilities tend to be free to use, the governing factor is how much water you can carry.
“Wild” or bankside mooring is common on the canals, not really on the rivers. It was limited to a few days on the busy Canal du Midi, but that’s been overruled recently.
It’s not unknown to come out of a lock or round a bend to see a boat and people who you know, a great excuse to stop for a couple of days to rekindle friendship, or make new ones.
It’s a life that doesn’t appeal to many, but there is a comarderie, as we are “all in the same boat”.
Many boat owners started off by hiring. Lots are seasonal, go home in the winter.
Many years ago, probably as far back as when I was a teenager, 3 friends and I hired a 4 berth cruiser from Acle on the Norfolk Broads, and we had a wonderful week or so cruising around and mooring at a pub each night.
Not sure how we booked it though in those far off pre internet days, but I do know it skint us to the extent that setting out individually we had to hitch hike there from Nottingham. That in itself was an adventure, back in the days when lifts were frequent and journeys long and short were filled with interesting conversations.
I have satisfied my wanderlust in various ways since, including several times round the world, but now I am content to hear and read of others’ exploits while snuggled down here with a couple of dogs. 
I’ve got a lovely book from the 1960s called, France the Quiet Way about cruising through inland France. In their pre-internet, pre-mobile phone days one of their biggest problems was confirming the location for crew changeovers. We take so much for granted these days.
That was written by an old friend of mine who owns and runs a barge in Bourgogne (on the Nivernais canal) with his wife who is brilliant at everything, and now their eldest son as well. The barge is called the Luciole and is gorgeous.
My one and only barge holiday was with the family when the kids were young. We loved it, and the highlight of their experience was when I fell overboard in a basin when I was doing a gentle spin turn. It wasn’t the possibility of drowning that worried me but the fact that the screw was still turning, as was the barge and, although my feet were on the bottom, it was slowly turning towards me as I desperately tried to haul myself out before being ‘screwed’. 
I’ve got it too. We were considering a liveaboard dutch barge a few years ago when we stopped our business, but my OH reminded me that she got seasick looking at a puddle.
That sounds like a wonderful existence. We have a 58 foot semi trad canal boat back in the UK, our home from home whilst visiting relations and friends.
We did live aboard for six months before we moved permanently to France, most of our worldly possessions in a storage unit. It made us very efficient in space saving and practicality whilst living in a metal tube
How utterly wonderful! Please do add to this thread, I’ve really enjoyed it!
I’ll 2nd that. 
David wrote:
“if you find a very good place is there a limit you are allowed to stay? If so, I can see the only drawback would be if you found a really nice spot and made friends.”
This might sound sanctimonious, however, my answer is that quite the opposite has happened.
There’s almost a tribal link between members of the livaboard, or long seasonable use boating world here in France. Possibly because there’s relatively few of us, we are in general a group species, so when meeting new like-minded folk we talk boats, experiences, trials and tribulations etc. wine and beer are generally involved .
Possibly it’s self protection, as if something bad happens on the water the first (often only) people to help are other boaters.
Whatever the reason, pulling up to a mooring often means another boater plodding towards you to take a rope from you, the ice is instantly broken.
We have used the same winter mooring since 2008, there are and have been folk from Australia,NZ, America, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, UK and possibly another ½ dozen other places who have become friends.
Through the cold months social life is very much like anywhere else, a lunch here and there, dinner parties, lots of “dropping in for a coffee”.
Around April and October we have a mooring BBQ, it’s like the U.N.
50ish people speaking French, English Swiss Dialect German, High German, chatting, laughing, strumming guitars.
The population changes a little each year, but we keep in touch with folk all over the world, on our UK trips we see friends we have made on the water.
We visited Switzerland a few years ago, a Swiss couple later asked us "have we done something that you don’t like, we heard you were in Switzerland and didn’t come and visit us ". We had to promise we would visit next time, arriving at their house we were shown to our bedroom, as sign was above the door “Paul und Maralyn”. .
It’s not a life for everyone, but we love it.
I found the same thing amongst fellow lorry drivers, I was surprised to be adressed as ‘tu’ my first time eating on a ferry with them. I asked my friend who was with me about it and he said, ‘it’s brotherhood’. Sometimes the familar form is used between us and bar staff in the routier restos, not in ordinary restos though with someone you don’t know. I have to think where I am before I speak.
Hi, this looks beautiful. We are looking to possibly buy a barge and live on the water - if possible, we would love advice. We would prefer to start with the comfort of a residential mooring both to gain confidence and also for the benefit of our dog and four cats to get used to everything. We have zero knowledge…We already have residency within France. Hope you can help. Cat
Hello Cat1. A friend told me about your possible interest in living on a barge in France, and I’ve joined this forum to be able to contact you (no disrespect meant to anyone else. I’m sure I’ll learn lots from being on here). Would it be possible for you to send me a private message? As I said, I’m new on here and unsure of the rules.
Welcome @AlsaceGirl , I always thought what a good idea to free spirit around the country via canals but never made it. I hope you get what you are looking for here and will join in and tell us all about it if you do. Or just join in. 
