 The popularity, particularly amongst American clients, of such cruises was improved by the American writer Emily Kimborough and her book "Floating Island" published in 1968, about her experiences aboard the "Palinurus".The high standards of accommodation expected by American clients rapidly drove the levels of luxury hotel barges upwards.In 1969, Richard Parsons teamed up with Guy Bardet to launch Continental Waterways, a company that eventually ran 15 hotel barges in France.