"Nooit Volmaakt" is a 75-foot canal barge with a large salon, dining area, two private guest cabins and a wheelhouse. The deck includes comfortable space for lounging and taking in the wonderful French countryside. There are bicycles for early morning boulangerie runs or exploring the beautiful sights along the towpaths.
The Diva Barge experience is all about enjoying the history, culture and cuisine of rural France. Above all, life aboard Nooit Volmaakt is relaxed, informal and unpretentious. Never dull! There’s time for good talk, listening to the birds, walking, reading and dozing in the shade. If this sounds like your kind of slow travel… please join us!
Since the Diva Barge Experience is about barging, first and foremost, guest crews will have a chance to lend a hand as we go along – but nothing more strenuous than dropping a line over a bollard or helping the lock keeper operate the gates. It offers a wonderful opportunity to learn traditional barge skills. Guests should be reasonably agile and willing to participate in basic aspects of barge life.
“Nooit Volmaakt” is a jaunty little motor ship …and a happy one. From the first glimpse in a wintry photograph we could tell from the curve of her hull and the angle of her wheelhouse that she was a charming ship for cruising the inland waterways of Europe, something we dreamed of doing for a long time.
“Nooit Volmaakt” is Dutch for “Never Perfect” and in Holland is understood as aspirational – something to enjoy striving toward.
1926
Launched in 1926 as a steel-hulled sailing barge, “Nooit Volmaakt” carried cargo such as farm products for many years throughout northern Holland and Europe and was eventually converted to diesel power.
1960s
In the 1960’s, she became home to a young couple from Friesland, who converted her into comfortable, year-round accommodation. Her sails and rigging were lost but the original leeboards remain and are functional today. Her aft cabin is mostly original and retains its charming traditional Dutch alcove bed with sliding doors.
1980s
An American from San Francisco purchased “Nooit Volmaakt” in 1989. After her major refit in 1994, Nooit Volmaakt offered superior accommodation for as many as four guests. Topside, she retained the ship’s original lines. Operating as a floating bed and breakfast on the waterways of Holland and Belgium for almost twenty years, she found resident moorings outside the front gate of her owner’s exquisite eighteenth century French home outside Paris.
2008 to Present
After looking at many barges around Europe, something about "Nooit Volmaakt” caught our eye and after a two-week whirlwind romance in Paris we succumbed and she was ours. We have extensively refitted her to make her the safe, smoothly operating and comfortable barge she is today.