At this time of year, we had ninety percent of the locks to ourselves. There were a few with counter currents surging at the lock approaches making entry a bit more complicated. There were several areas which had a variety of charter power boats available. I can see where just cruising the canals and rivers for a few weeks would be a pleasant way to see parts of Europe, whether it be the small market towns, vineyards, and tranquil countryside, or the centres of large and ancient cities such as Paris, Nancy, Cologne, Maastricht, Brussels, Strasbourg, Amsterdam, Lyon, Avignon and others. The city marinas are no more expensive than was Paris, and are usually right in the old city centre.
Distances involved depend upon the routes taken.
We would cover from ten to sixty nautical miles a day, depending on direction of currents, and number of locks traversed. Our longest distance for one day was 66 nautical miles from Honfleur to Rouen when we went up the Seine with the tide and only had one lock to transit. Another day we did 22 locks and traveled 20.6 nautical miles from Chaumont to Langres on the Canal de la Marne a la Saone. As a rough estimate, one nautical mile is almost two kilometres. We traveled 1456 kilometres or 787 nautical miles and went through 175 locks from Honfleur to Sete.