Editions du Breil publishes a collection of guides to the navigable canals and rivers in France. They are mainly intended for the boating fratenity but are also useful for cyclists and trekkers who wish to discover the French waterways. Each guide has about 100 pages with detailed maps and tourist and technical information in English, French and German. The contents are constantly updated; each guide being renewed on average every two years.

In this guide, Bourgogne - Nivernais we will follow the river Yonne for the whole of the navigable section. It is a big river and, indeed, at Montereau its flow is greater than that of the Seine but outside flood times it is calm, deep and easily navigable. The main riverside towns such as Sens, Villeneuve, Joigny and Auxerre offer interesting stopover points.

The Yonne is linked to the Loire by the Nivernais canal. Despite its small gauge, this canal has been carefully restored and offers an interesting alternative for boats on their way to the Mediterranean. The Burgundy Canal, cradle of inland leisure boating in France, has suffered in the last few years from lack of maintenance and the available depth is limited in the central sections. It can no longer be called a transit canal, but it continues to offer some extraordinary cruising opportunities in a typically Burgundian countryside.

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