Welcome to the Long Village!

For fifteen years Kate Hill—barge owner and captain, writer, cook and adventurer—has lived on board the Julia Hoyt as an inland-water gypsy, telling tales of her floating world while chartering and offering gourmet tours. With neighbors, friends, and her barge dog Dupont, she has lived and sailed the waterways of Europe that connect her long village.

In late May 2001, Kate and her crew set off from Camont, in southwest France, on a 1,200-mile long adventure—to cruise the length of France, through Belgium’s forests and inland ports, and on to the windy North Sea regions of Holland.

Their destination was Koostertille, where Kate’s 85’ Dutch tjalk, the Julia Hoyt, was built over a hundred years ago. This canal and river journey across a continent —at five miles an hour—marks the completion of a circle for Kate, who purchased the Julia Hoyt in Holland. Kate turned 50 that year: a good excuse for an adventure.

We hope you’ll join us often as we bring you the adventures of Kate and her crew. With a focus on food, we’ll go from farm to market to kitchen table, and from café to Michelin-starred restaurant, as Kate and her crew taste, test, and bring alive classic regional cuisine.

But food won’t be our only focus. We’ll also explore the romance and history of Europe’s floating merchants—the men and women of the barge fleet who preserve a vanishing way of life.

With a touch of history, a bit of tourist trivia, lots of photos, and a growing selection of great recipes, we hope our new site will entertain and delight you. Let us know what you think!