The Animation du Patrimoine service of the City of Chalon-sur-Saône presents: The banks of the Saône in Chalon
In partnership with:

• Green Spaces and Engineering and Infrastructure Services of the City of Chalon-sur-Saône
• The Sustainable Development Department of the Grand Chalon (+ logo of the Grand Chalon)
• La Ligue protectrice des Oiseaux de Bourgogne Franche Comté (+ Logo)
• The Communication Departments of the City of Chalon-sur-Saône and the Grand Chalon.
  Addressing the issue of the banks of the Saône to Chalon sounds like a no-brainer: the river has given its name to the city and the links between them are numerous. And yet… What are we talking about when we approach the banks of the Saône in the heart of the city? Undeniably, today, an element of heritage of the city... This point of view is new, and this is not how it was perceived in the Middle Ages or in modern times (16th-18th centuries): the banks of the Saône had utilitarian functions (fishing, trade...), they were dangerous (invasions, etc.), and were tailored to their needs… But little by little, they became, probably at the end of the 20th century and even more so since the beginning of the 21st century, “heritage”…
  The banks of the Saône are both a natural heritage, with its fauna and flora, as well as cultural, with its quays, tree plantations and lines of buildings facing the river. The whole is to be maintained and preserved, and its history is plural. Above all, cultural choices (such as the development of wharves) and ecological data (such as global warming) interact, so that it is unthinkable to hope to save a cultural heritage without preserving its environment. This is true in Venice, in Mont-Saint-Michel… as in Chalon-sur-Saône.
  Therefore, a multidisciplinary approach is now essential: for this exhibition, various specialists were questioned, and gave their «vision» of the banks of the Saône: environmental and landscape engineer, specialists in sustainable development, architectural historian, archaeologist, engineer and civil engineering technician… They give a singular image… and will also be enriched by your own point of view. They appear in a film, and their words are repeated in cards available on the spot.
  Because this exhibition is an invitation to go back to the Saône, to live them, to feel them, to make them your own. Perhaps with a different look, sharpened by the statements of our “witnesses”, but in the footsteps of the generations of tourists and inhabitants who preceded us...