You’ll find two accounts of this French canal journey indicated by different type, one from Mr Horner and one from his wife Siobhan. Doing what so many people would like to do they give up the day job, taking off for a gypsy life with two young children in tow. The journey is a physical one but there’s also the mental journey, away from the demands of the office and home, there’s freedom to slow down, reconnect as a family and to put the rat-race in perspective.
Damian Horner is scared that fifteen years in advertising have turned him into a bastard. As he approaches his fortieth birthday, he wants to see if he can be a good husband and a good father before it's too late. Siobhan, his wife, would like to find out too but has other worries. Do marriage and kids mean she's now trapped in a world of suburban domesticity? It takes a miserable day and a bottle of wine to change everything. Suddenly Damian and Siobhan decide to throw their lives in the air and escape to the French canals, taking with them their son Noah who is two years old and can barely talk, and their daughter India who is one and cannot walk. Told in two voices, we hear both sides of their story and get the whole truth as Damian and Siobhan describe coming to terms with themselves and their life on board an old fishing boat in France with no space, no fridge, no charts, no deadlines and no flushing toilet.
