An unusual journey down the Loire, a whirlwind of sensations and emotions, from sand and silt to fish and insects.

On a famous bridge in the Loire Valley, three friends about to turn fifty make a vow to row down the Loire River all the way to the see. This story puts readers in the confines of a 6x6 raft for a 500-mile journey of sleeping on islands every night. It's nothing like a captain's log: no factual recitation of events, no feats of derring-do for the crew, no weighty contemplation of the region's sights and rich cultural heritage passing by. Michel Jullien spares us no detail, aural or visual, of a physically taxing journey by river. Do we see things differently from a boat than we would from on shore? What does a town look like, traveled by river?