BALADES ET VISITES A CHALON

Built on the banks of the Saône, Chalon-sur-Saône was a naval base in antiquity. Mentioned for the first time in Julius Caesar's Gallic War (58 BC) under the name of Cabilonnum, the city was an important commercial crossroads at the time of the Aedui, accessible from all over Europe, both by land and by water. The Saône river has always played an important role in the history of Chalon, allowing the early development of trade and industry. Nowadays, Chalon-sur-Saône has been labelled as a "City of Art and History" and has a very rich historical heritage. Discover the city of Nicéphore Niépce, inventor of photography!

Did you say Orbandale?

The Orbandale symbolizes the three golden circles on the city's coat of arms. The path of the Orbandale is a tourist route allowing to discover, in complete freedom, the treasures of the historical heart of Chalon and the Saint-Laurent island. From the remarkable facades to the interior courtyards, 35 centers of interest mark out the city. The tour, available in several languages at the Tourist Office, is also available in a version called "Orbidule" for children.

The Nicéphore Niépce and Vivant Denon museums

The Nicéphore Niépce Museum embodies progress with photography perceived as a technical, aesthetic and social object. It highlights the forces behind photography from its invention by Niépce (1827) to the digital image. Its collections include nearly 3 million photographs and objects, the centerpiece of which is the world's first camera used by Niépce.

The Musée Vivant Denon, named after Dominique Vivant Denon, a precursor of museology, dates from the 19th century. It houses collections of archaeology, fine arts, a graphic art cabinet, as well as a set of woodcuts unique in France.

The Saint-Vincent cathedral and its cloister

Chalon-sur-Saône is one of the few cities in France to still have a complete "cathedral group", consisting of the episcopal palace, the canons' houses, the church and the cloister. Built and modified between the 9th and 19th centuries, the cathedral presents a harmony of styles. Its capitals are one of the most beautiful examples of Saône-et-Loire. The cloister is the only preserved canonical cloister of Burgundy Franche-Comté serving a cathedral. Under restoration since 2013, it is a cloister with a new look that reopened to the public in 2019.