France’s Floating Vintage Wine Bar: La Reine Pedauque’s Time Capsule Cruising
Along its storied canals and deep within its untouched countryside, Southern Burgundy’s wine history is enjoying a well-deserved rediscovery.
French barge cruises gliding along the region’s restored inland waterways now invite travelers deeper into this celebrated landscape, offering access to boutique vineyards, intimate domaines, historic cellars, and stylish tasting rooms.
Together, these experiences welcome Barge Lady guests to a bountiful Burgundy that honors its world-famous wine heritage while embracing a more strategic and vibrant future.
Dijon anchors this revival as a sophisticated hub port, while the wine village of Beaune flourishes as Burgundy’s convivial capital of tasting and celebration. Along the way, restored châteaux, bustling markets, preserved cellars, elegant lounges, and postcard-perfect moorings unfold as one seamless expression of the region’s signature brilliance — deeply rooted, richly pleasurable, and delightfully contemporary.
At the heart of this refined revival is the 8-guest, Deluxe-class barge La Reine Pédauque, originally built in 1922 and thoughtfully reimagined as a floating sanctuary of style and indulgence.
Carrying up to eight pampered passengers as she glides through Burgundy’s tranquil canals and petite rivers, La Reine Pédauque offers an immersive journey into a world of wine from guided tours through historic cellars, to private samplings in prestigious venues to the hand-selected pairings served onboard, all aligned with indelible moments of accessible indulgence.
A 20TH CENTURY TIME CAPSULE OF CRAFTSMANSHIP
Central to La Reine Pédauque’s unique appeal is the barge’s vintage bar, a warm, low-lit salon where polished wood, brass accents, and glasses of locally produced wines set the tone. Serving as the barge’s social center, it is here that guests gather to swirl, sip, and savor Burgundy’s exceptional elixirs in an atmosphere both welcoming and exclusive.
Thoughtfully preserved to honor the vessel’s 1922 origins, the bar beautifully captures a character and craftsmanship of a bygone era.
Original-style wood paneling has been carefully refinished to reveal La Reine’s natural depth and warmth; the bar’s black tiling was brought back to its initial lustre; and the elaborate brass fittings — lovingly polished to a soft, shiny glow — echo the barge’s 100+-years of proud maritime heritage.
FIFTY YEARS OF WATER AND WINE
Owner Marco Dueggelin spent many years restoring La Reine Pedauque, with deliberate attention paid to the bar’s footprint and flair. “When I purchased La Reine Pedauque about ten years ago, the barge’s bar looked almost exactly like it does today,” he reminisces with a smile. “Over the years, there have been careful refurbishments, but only the kind that respect the vessel’s history.
“We restored the inner side of the bar in plain oak,” Dueggelin explains. “But from the outside, you can hardly see the work at all. The goal was to preserve the bar’s original design and style.”
In fact, the bar itself is something of a time capsule. From what the team has been able to trace, the bar was originally built more than 50 years ago, and, most remarkably, it has never been redesigned. The only truly new additions are a playful finishing touch: hand-carved wooden bar chairs, each whimsically shaped like a dolphin’s tail. “They’re the only decorative pieces we’ve added,” Dueggelin says. “Everything else is exactly as it has always been.”
A MOST UNIQUE CONVERSATION PIECE FROM ANOTHER TIME
At the center of the bar, a warm glint of polished brass draws the eye. It belongs to a captivating curiosity: an authentic 19th-century diving helmet, ingeniously transformed into a clock. With its riveted seams and glass portholes, the piece feels less like decoration than a relic from the great age of maritime discovery.
Like so many details aboard La Reine Pédauque, it is both artifact and ornament — a beautifully preserved and cherished object from another era, now gently gliding along the inland waterways of France.
One can almost imagine it belonging to a fearless aviatrix or gentleman explorer of the late nineteenth century, when water, wine, and wonder shaped the spirit of travel.
Today, the helmet’s polished brass softly catches the glow of the bar lights, its glass portholes reflecting the warm wood and convivial conversation around it. As a final whimsical detail, the clock no longer keeps time; perhaps that is fitting aboard La Reine Pédauque, where more than fifty years of the bar’s history meet Burgundy’s pampered grapes in the beautifully boutique wines poured onboard.
A toast to the vintage bar on La Reine Pédauque and its amazing history, its current status as the barge’s signature amenity, and the many wonderful glasses of wine to be shared there in the future!
