The canal completes the link between the English Channel and the Mediterranean Sea, via the rivers Seine and the Yonne to the Saône and Rhône.

The canal continues through Flogny-la-Chapelle, somewhat surprisingly leaves Burgundy for a short stretch (1.5 km) as it passes through Charrey in the Aube department (Champagne-Ardenne region) and heads to the town of Tonnerre, famous for the Fosse Dionne spring and the birthplace of the Chevalier d'Eon.

[3] At Lézinnes boats meet a series of six electrified locks, taking them past a cement works and more grain silos at Pacy-sur-Armançon and on to Ancy-le-Franc.

[4] Leaving Ravières there is an extremely difficult pound which suffers from intense growth of aquatic weeds and which can cause fouling of the propeller.

Eight locks and 13 km after Montbard the canal arrives in Venarey-les-Laumes situated close to the village of Alise-Sainte-Reine thought to be the site of the Battle of Alesia.

The railway carries on straight towards Dijon, climbing the steep Burgundy escarpment which it crosses by means of a 4.1 km (2.5 mi) long tunnel at Blaisy-Bas.

Boats must be fitted with a fixed or hand-held spotlight to pass through, following a fatal accident a number of years ago inside the tunnel itself.

The canal now changes direction from SE to NNE running through the valley of the river Ouche as it makes its way towards Dijon, the capital of the Burgundy region.

[citation needed] On leaving the port of Dijon and running past the SNCF depot at Perrigny and the airport at Longvic the canal enters the wide and relatively flat valley of the Saône.

Shortly after passing by Brazey-en-Plaine the canal reaches its end at Saint-Jean-de-Losne, the largest inland pleasure port in France, where it joins the river Saône.

Between 1879 and 1882 work was completed, where necessary, to increase lock sizes to conform to the Freycinet standard, after which it became possible to move barges of up to 250 tonnes displacement, and up to 38.50 metres long on the canal.

[7] Commercial barge traffic is restricted to the two extremities; between St Jean de Losne and Dijon in the south and from Migennes to Brienon in the north.

Otherwise traffic is restricted to three types of user: privately owned boats (now the most important user group), hire craft, in decline due to the closure of several hire bases in recent years, and hotel barges, mainly centered on the Ouche valley in the south, although three hotel barges remain operating on the northern section.