The Saône (/soʊn/ SOHN, French: [son];[1] Arpitan: Sona; Latin: Arar) is a river in eastern France.

The name Saône derives from that of the Gallic river goddess Souconna, which has also been connected with a local Celtic tribe, the Sequanes.

At 30,000 square kilometres (12,000 sq mi) the Saône has the largest watershed of any French river that does not flow directly into the sea, covering approximately 1/18 of metropolitan France.

According to Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War this doubling reflected the idea that it was difficult to identify the direction of the river due to its slow rate of flow.

Its current name came from a sacred spring, Sauc-Onna, located at Chalon, which was used by Roman legionaries to refer to the entire river.

[3] The 161 km long part upstream from Saint-Symphorien-sur-Saône to Corre, also named Petite Saône, is navigable for Freycinet gauge ships and has 19 locks.

The mean annual flow rate, or discharge, of the Saône has been measured over 50 years (as of 2013) at the Ray-sur-Saône hydrological station, situated about 30 kilometres (19 mi) after the Lanterne confluence between Port-sur-Saône and Gray.

It flows in a vast plain approximately 3 kilometres (2 mi) wide as far as Lyon in the basin of the former Bressan lake.

The slope is very gradual, and without hydraulic projects up to the north of Chalon aimed at guaranteeing a deep navigation channel, overflows would be more frequent.