There are two ways to come down through the middle of France towards the Mediterranean, and most people only ever talk about one of them. Everyone knows the Canal du Midi. Far fewer talk about the Saone, which is a pity, because the Saone is the easiest big river in the country to cruise and the Doubs that feeds into its valley is one of the prettiest waterways I have ever taken a boat down.
We arrived at Saint-Jean-de-Losne in 2022 on a Kiwi crew's borrowed Linssen, fresh off the Burgundy canal and slightly traumatised by a fortnight of tiny manual locks. Dropping onto the Saone felt like stepping off a country lane onto a motorway with no traffic.
A river that does the work for you
From Saint-Jean-de-Losne down to Lyon the navigable Saone runs about 208 km. On the high-capacity stretch from Saint-Jean-de-Losne down you pass just five modern locks, at Seurre, Ecuelles, Ormes, Dracé and Couzon. Five locks in two hundred kilometres. After the Burgundy canal, where you can do five locks before breakfast, that figure alone tells you what kind of cruising this is.
These are large commercial locks, around 185 by 12 metres, automated and quick. We rarely waited more than about twenty minutes, and often the lock was sitting open for us. The river is dimensioned for grand gabarit traffic: maximum beam 5.45 m, draught up to 3.00 m, and air draft governed by the bridges, the lowest of which is the Pont Saint-Laurent at Macon at around 7.20 m above normal level. Everything else gives you at least 6 m. In practical terms, if your boat fits the French canal system at all, the Saone will not trouble you on size.
The gradient is gentle and the flow regular, so the current is rarely an issue except after serious rain, when the Saone floods predictably and the pontoons go under. Watch the gauges. Otherwise this is forgiving water: wide, deep, well marked, with good moorings at Chalon-sur-Saone, Macon, Tournus and Trevoux, and fast trains from Chalon if you need to nip home.
The towns and the wine, which is half the point
The Saone runs through some of the best eating and drinking in France, and the moorings put you on the doorstep of it. Chalon-sur-Saone has a long town quay and sits at the gate of the Cote Chalonnaise; the appellations of Givry, Rully, Mercurey and Montagny are all inside a short taxi or bike ride, so you can tie up, fill the wine locker and be back before the lock-keeper notices. Chalon is also a TGV stop, which is why so many crews use it as a crew-change point.
Tournus, 30 km downstream, is built around the Abbaye Saint-Philibert, one of the oldest surviving Romanesque churches in the country, begun around the year 1000. The quay there is sunny and central and the Saturday market is the real thing, not a tourist set-piece. Macon, further south, has pastel riverfronts and puts you among the Macon and Beaujolais vineyards. If you want a quieter night, Trevoux and Verdun-sur-le-Doubs (where the Doubs joins the Saone) are smaller and prettier and the moorings are usually free.
For a boat that has just escaped the manual locks of the Canal de Bourgogne by boat, this stretch feels like a reward. You make easy distance, you eat well, and the only real planning question is which appellation you fancy that evening.
Where the Saone takes you
Lyon, at the bottom, is where the Saone meets the Rhone, and from there the route to the sea continues as a much bigger, faster river. If the Med is your aim, the Saone is the comfortable first half of that journey. Our notes on the Rhone from Lyon to the Mediterranean cover the serious-river section that follows, which is a different animal: powerful current, vast locks, real downstream commitment.
Going the other way, Saint-Jean-de-Losne is the hub of inland boating in France. It is where the Saone, the Canal de Bourgogne, the Canal du Rhone au Rhin and the Canal de la Marne a la Saone all meet, which is exactly why so many boats winter there. If you are pointed towards the Atlantic instead, the Canal de Bourgogne by boat leaves from the same town.
Why the Doubs is worth slowing down for
Now the part I actually came to write about. From Saint-Symphorien, a few kilometres up from Saint-Jean-de-Losne, the Canal du Rhone au Rhin heads east, and after a short canal section it drops onto the river Doubs and follows its valley for long stretches all the way up through the Jura.
The full Canal du Rhone au Rhin runs about 236 km with 114 locks, but you do not have to do all of it, and these days you cannot. From Saint-Symphorien a 17 km man-made section leads to the Doubs at Dole, after which the navigation borrows the canalised river itself for long stretches as far as Voujeaucourt. The northern reaches towards the Rhine are broken into disconnected sections that have not been fully navigable for years, so the southern Doubs valley, up through Dole towards Besancon, is both the cruising prize and effectively the only part you will do as a visitor. The Doubs winds through wooded gorges and under limestone cliffs, the locks are smaller and slower than the Saone's, and the towns are the kind where the boulanger knows you by day three.
Besancon is the showpiece stop. The canal runs straight through the hill under the Citadelle de Vauban in a 500 m tunnel, a UNESCO-listed fortress sitting directly above your head, and there is a 4 km river loop around the old town if you would rather take the scenic line through the centre. We did the tunnel out and the loop back, which is the best of both. Dole, lower down, is the other one to linger over: Pasteur's birthplace, with the canal threading right past the tanners' houses and the collegiate church tower watching over the whole reach.
Be honest about your boat here. Where the navigation uses the river Doubs itself, depths are shallower and silt moves around, so this is not the place for a deep-draught yacht. Below about 1.40 m you are comfortable; much more and you will be testing the bottom. There are also flood locks, normally left open, that close when the Doubs rises, so a wet spell can shut the river behind you. Build flexibility into the plan.
The Doubs is slow cruising by design. You are not getting anywhere fast, and that is the point. Dole, with its waterfront and the canal threading right through the old town, is one of the best overnight stops in eastern France.
Picking your route
If your priority is making distance comfortably, take the Saone and keep going. If your priority is the cruising itself, the food, the villages, the sense of having a river largely to yourself, turn off onto the Doubs and lose a week you will not regret. We did the Saone in four unhurried days and then spent eleven crawling up the Doubs, and it was the Doubs we talked about all winter.
Either way, Saint-Jean-de-Losne is your pivot. Stock up, fill the water tank, check the diesel, and decide which kind of trip you want. Both are good. They are just not the same trip.
Saint-Jean-de-Losne is also where most boats stop for the cold months, since it is the largest river port in France and has the chandlers, crane and mechanics to look after a boat through the freeze. If you are cruising over more than one summer, our guide to wintering your boat on the French canals covers the choices, and our notes on finding diesel, water and pump-out on the French waterways will save you a dry tank on the Doubs the way it nearly caught us.
