Downstream of Consciousness a Week On an Orient-Express Barge Is a Boating Holiday Like No Other, Writes Phil Miller. Say Hello to the Finest Foods, the Beauty of Burgundy and the Rejuvenating Majesty of Langour

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Afloat in France: what a perfect description of the delicious sense of lightness, airiness, of being careless and carefree as you sit on a luxury barge gliding through the heart of the country. I had heard, before embarking on my brief love affairwith a slim, fast- moving 130ft French beauty called Amaryllis, that it would be a "once in a lifetime" experience. Little do you realise, though, how easy it is to become entranced and benumbed by a few days' loafing, eating and drinking on a barge.

As Amaryllis - a five-star hotel on water - gently chugs along the Rhone from Lyon to Macon, your mind and body too quickly become weightless and buoyant. The boat is just one luxury barge run by OrientExpress, better known for specialising in top-notch trains. Barges have become part of its deluxe travel empire since 2004, when Afloat in France, a company running five top-of-the-range vessels, became part of its portfolio.

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Downstream of Consciousness a Week On an Orient-Express Barge Is a Boating Holiday Like No Other, Writes Phil Miller. Say Hello to the Finest Foods, the Beauty of Burgundy and the Rejuvenating Majesty of Langour

Before losing all sense of the world beyond our luxury cocoon, we spend a day in Lyon, the second city of France. The beautiful capital of the Rhone-Alpes region, in the middle of the plain of the Rhone Valley, is dominated by dualities: its two major hills, the Fourviere and the CroixRousse, and its two rivers, the Rhone and the Saone, which meet ...

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