Buy a 90-year-old Dutch canal barge, a 70-foot former commercial boat, and cruise the canals and rivers of France. Brie, Burgundy and baguettes. Snails and foie gras. Engine breakdowns and language adventures. Sounds like a dream. In On a Barge in France, Harvey Schwartz tells of the four summers he and his wife spent on Hoop Doet Leven ("Hope Gives Life") traveling the French countryside and learning to live a slower, fuller life. Each chapter offers a slice of French life, a potpourri of the classic French lifestyle that perseveres in small towns along the canals and rivers.