A canal cruise with French Country Waterways is a sizeable tick on a travelling gourmand’s bucket list. For decades, the company’s luxury barges have turned heads on canals and rivers in Burgundy, Champagne, Alsace-Lorraine and the Upper Loire, a lush region of chateaus, wineries and farmland known as the Garden of France.

Regardless of the vessel or route, eight to 12 lucky passengers are treated to fine meals, curated daily wine and cheese tastings, an open premium bar, large ensuite staterooms and off-boat excursions to wineries, chateaus and a Michelin-starred restaurant. All of this is included in the price of the voyage, which is not inexpensive. Yet three of the four couples joining me this week are repeat clients, happy to relive the quality of their past. As for the company, it’s so committed to traditional and exemplary old-world service that they physically mail their guests typed correspondence.

Our Michelin-dining experience is at Maison Medard in the village of Boulleret. Chef Julien Medard and his wife Delphine, offer a six-course tasting menu that attracts diners from hours and even countries away. With each dish uniquely plated and accompanied by fine Sancerre wines, this is elevated French cuisine of the highest level. With each plating, the server invites me to “enjoy your moment.” Indeed, I do. Restaurants in Quebec and Vancouver have recently caught the eye of Michelin, but culinary stars shine especially bright in France.

Rogny-les-sept-Ècluses is a small town built alongside seven original locks that opened in 1642 after years of political and economic delay (including the Thirty Years’ War). It’s my favourite moorage, perhaps because I choose to explore the ancient locks and village instead of a morning excursion to the two-century-old Gien pottery factory. There’s a lot of flexibility baked into our genteel itinerary, and there’s nothing wrong with lazing on the sundeck all day, either. Crossing the locks keeps Captain Sam and our strapping deckhand Adrien busy, piloting our barge into a slot with less than an inch to spare on either side. The locks were standardized according to the Freycinet gauge in 1879: 39 metres long, 5.2 metres wide, and 2.2 metres deep. Riverboats like ours are designed to squeeze in with no margin for error, and it’s unnerving to observe our Captain park the Nenuphar as casually as you would a car. It’s also an opportunity to stretch our legs off the boat and walk off breakfast or lunch. Every village we pass has a bakery, and each morning the crew pick up fresh croissants, pain au chocolat, pastries and baguettes to serve with breakfast.

Did I mention I’m on a diet?
Apologies, I was on a diet.