Narrow Dog to Carcassonne by Terry Darlington

Narrow Dog to Carcassonne by Terry Darlington

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.

During WWII, Terry Darlington grew up in Pembroke Dock, Wales, between a flying-boat base and an oil terminal. He made it out alive and established Research Associates, an international market research organization, and Stone Master Marathoners, a running club in Staffordshire. He is gregarious and confidant, uneasy with practical concerns, and prone to lingering in pubs, as are many Welshmen. He like boats but has no experience with it. Terry, his wife Monica, and their whippet Jim planned to sail the Phyllis May down the Intracoastal Waterway from Virginia to Florida after the release of Narrow Dog to Carcassonne--an expedition that, if they survive it, would be the subject of their second book, Narrow Dog to Indian River, due out in 2009.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780385342087
ISBN 10	038534208X
Title	Narrow Dog to Carcassonne
Author	Terry Darlington
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	2008-03-25
Number of pages	336
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.