The Canal du Centre is the name of two separate canals in Europe, one in France, the other in Belgium. The French canal covers a distance of 73 mi. (118 km) in Burgundy between the Saône River at Chalon-sur-Saône and the Loire at Digoin. Designed by the French engineer Emiland Marie Gauthey (1732-1806), it was built between 1783 and 1802 and constituted the final link in the first inland-waterway route between the English Channel and the Mediterranean Sea.