Canal boat rental Franche-Comte Vosges, from Scey-sur-Saône

The Saône is one of France's most attractive river, with few locks, rural scenery and many possibilities for swimming. On the forest floor too, the earth brings forth a generous offering of mushrooms.

The well-preserved villages in the Mâconnais and the Dôle region are a constant delight. Climbing north on the Canal des Vosges you glide through an amphitheatre of as trees, silver birch and other trees.

The towns of Fontenoy le Château and Epinal reveal their many charms. From Dôle to Besançon the Canal du Rhône au Rhin follows the course of the River Doubs past rocky cliffs and between wooded slopes.

To arrive in Besançon is truly dramatic. A tunnel 394m long allows you to pass right underneath the great fortress built by Vauban in the 17th century and to make a complete circuit of the cit by water.