Narrow Dog to Carcassonne: Two Foolish People, One Odd Dog, an English Canal Boat...and the Adventure of a Lifetime

"We could bore ourselves to death, drink ourselves to death, or have a bit of an adventure..." It was absurd. It was foolhardy. And it was glorious. When they retired, Terry Darlington and his somewhat saner wife Monica--together with their dog, a whippet named Jim--chucked their earthbound life and set out in an utterly unseaworthy sixty-foot canal narrowboat across the notoriously treacherous English Channel and down to the South of France.

Aboard the Phyllis May, you'll dive through six-foot waves in the Channel and be swept down the terrible Rh ne. You'll meet the French nobody meets--poets, captains, scholars, madmen; they all want to know the couple on the painted boat and their narrow dog. You'll visit the France nobody knows--the backwaters of Flanders, the canals beneath Paris, and the forbidden routes to the wine-dark Mediterranean Sea. Aliens, trolls, gongoozlers, killer fish, and the walking dead all stand between our two-person, one-whippet crew and their goal: the ancient, many-towered city of Carcassonne.

A tale of travel, travail, dubious wine, a balky pump, and a boat built for only a few feet of water, this exuberantly inventive and hugely entertaining odyssey of the spirit, senses, and heart will enchant lovers of France, England, and all that lies between.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Dell
Published: 03/25/2008
ISBN: 9780385342087
Pages: 336
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.24h x 5.22w x 0.90d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2008 pg. 178
Publishers Weekly 02/25/2008 pg. 65
Booklist 03/01/2008 pg. 44