Bettie's Books

BOTWBBC Blurb: Charles Timoney is an English writer, with a French wife, living in France.After showing a group of friends the rowing boat he has spent the last six months building, Charles - possibly unwisely - accepts a challenge to travel the entire length of the River Seine from source to the sea, using the boat where he can, to discover the true France.But it proves rather more difficult than he imagined. Not all of the Seine is navigable by rowing boat, so he sets sail into an unvarnished France on a variety of craft, hitching lifts in everything from a converted Parisian tourist boat to a sailing boat with no mast. He even tries out an amphibious vehicle.Along the way he encounters Stèphane (a carp fisherman with a very strange habit), grapples with rapids and stubborn cattle, rescues a couple when their sailing dinghy capsizes, and discovers that rowing in the dark is more frightening than he first thought.Written by Charles Timoney Abridged by Libby SpurrierReader: Mark Heap Producer: Joanna GreenA Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.1: Charles - possibly unwisely - accepts a challenge to travel the entire length of the River Seine from source to the sea.2: Having located the source of the Seine, further along the river the author takes his first purposeful strokes towards the English Channel.3: With the Seine now officially declared navigable and too dangerous for a rowing boat, Charles Timoney continues his journey in a converted Parisian tourist boat.4: On his quest to travel the entire length of the River Seine, author Charles Timoney meets Stephane, a carp fisherman with a very strange habit.5: Continuing along the Seine, Charles Timoney tries out an amphicar and stops off in Rouen. Sequana (pronounce sek-oo-ANN-a) is the Gaulish Goddess of the River Seine. The source of the Seine was called the Fontes Sequanae (the Springs of Sequana) by the Gauls, and they built a healing shrine there. When the Romans took over the area, they built temples to Sequana and continued her worship. Her waters were believed to heal physical infirmities, especially diseases of the eye. Her name means “the fast-flowing one” and is also seen as Sequanna, Siquanna, and Secuana. Source: http://www.goddessaday.com/2008/04/page/2The height of self-indulgence. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin This failed on both scores. NEXT