Chalon-sur-Saône

**Chalon-sur-Saône** is a city and a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of France. It is the largest city of the department; however, the department capital is the smaller city of Mâcon.

## History
Though the place where is Chalon-sur-Saône now was an important town of the Aedui (Celtic people that lived between the Saône and Loire rivers) and objects of La Tène culture have been found here, the first mention of the town, as ***Cavillonum*** or ***Cabillonum***, is found in Julius Caesar's *Gallic Wars* (VII, chs. 42 and 90).

## Geography
Chalon-sur-Saône is on the sides of the Saône river, in the south of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. The city is at  to the southeast of Paris and at  to the north of Lyon.

It has an area of , and its average altitude is ; at the city hall, the altitude is .

The Saône river flows through the eastern part of the city and the small river Thalie flows through the western part of the *commune*.

Chalon-sur-Saône is surrounded by the *communes* Fragnes, Crissey, Châtenoy-en-Bresse, Saint-Marcel, Lux, Saint-Rémy, Châtenoy-le-Royal and Champforgeuil.

### Climate
The climate of Chalon-sur-Saône, in the Köppen climate classification, is **Cfb** - Oceanic climate with template summers.

## Population
The inhabitants of Chalon-sur-Saône are known, in French, as *Chalonnais* (women: *Chalonnaises*).

With a population of 44,985, Chalon-sur-Saône has a population density of  inhabitants/km2.

**Evolution of the population in Chalon-sur-Saône**

Colors=
  id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9)
  id:darkgrey  value:gray(0.7)
  id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1)
  id:barra value:rgb(0.6,0.7,0.8)

ImageSize = width:500 height:373
PlotArea = left:50 bottom:30 top:30 right:30
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:60000
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:10000 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:5000 start:0
BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo

BarData=
 bar:1968 text:1968
 bar:1975 text:1975
 bar:1982 text:1982
 bar:1990 text:1990
 bar:1999 text:1999
 bar:2006 text:2006
 bar:2014 text:2014

PlotData=
 color:barra width:30 align:left

 bar:1968 from:0 till: 50589
 bar:1975 from:0 till: 58187
 bar:1982 from:0 till: 56194
 bar:1990 from:0 till: 54575
 bar:1999 from:0 till: 50124
 bar:2006 from:0 till: 46534
 bar:2014 from:0 till: 44985

PlotData=
 bar:1968 at: 50589 fontsize:S text: 50,589 shift:(-12,5)
 bar:1975 at: 58187 fontsize:S text: 58,187 shift:(-15,5)
 bar:1982 at: 56194 fontsize:S text: 56,194 shift:(-15,5)
 bar:1990 at: 54575 fontsize:S text: 54,575 shift:(-15,5)
 bar:1999 at: 50124 fontsize:S text: 50,124 shift:(-15,5)
 bar:2006 at: 46534 fontsize:S text: 46,534 shift:(-15,5)
 bar:2014 at: 44985 fontsize:S text: 44,985 shift:(-15,5)

Chalon-sur-Saône forms, with other 9 *communes*, the urban area of Chalon-sur-Saône, with a population of 74.357 inhabitants (2013) and an area of . This urban area is the centre of the metropolitan area of Chalon-sur-Saône, formed by 90 *communes* with a population of 134,568 inhabitants (2013) and an area of .

## Administration
Chalon-sur-Saône is a subprefecture of the Saône-et-Loire department since 1800. It is also the capital of the *arrondissement* of Chalon-sur-Saône and the administrative centre () of three cantons:
* Chalon-sur-Saône-1 formed by 5 *communes* and part of Chalon-sur-Saône, with 19,093 inhabitants (2014).
* Chalon-sur-Saône-2 formed by part of Chalon-sur-Saône, with 20,983 inhabitants (2014).
* Chalon-sur-Saône-3 formed by the *commune* Châtenoy-le-Royal and part of Chalon-sur-Saône, with 19,559 inhabitants (2014).

It is part of the intercommunality *Le Grand Chalon* ().

### Twin cities 
Chalon-sur-Saône is a twin town of:
* St. Helens, United Kingdom
* Solingen, Germany
* Novara, Italy
* Næstved, Denmark

## Places of interest
Some interesting places in Chalon-sur-Saône are:
* '''St. Vincent's Cathedral** on the Saint-Vincent Square, which has some elements from the eighth century.
* **Musée Nicéphore-Niépce**, a museum on photography.
* **Musée Vivant-Denon''', an art museum.

## Gallery

File:Saône-et-Loire (septembre 2012) 061.JPG|Saint-Pierre church
File:Tribute to Nicéphore Niépce Chalon-sur-Saône.jpg|Statue of Nicéphore Niépce
File:Saône-et-Loire (septembre 2012) 052.JPG|The Saône river and the Saint-Laurent bridge
File:Musee Denon.jpg|Musée Vivant-Denon
File:Chalon-sur-saone.JPG|View of the Saône river and part of the old city

## People from Chalon-sur-Saône
* Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833), pioneer of photography.

## Related pages
* Arrondissement of Chalon-sur-Saône
* Communes of the Saône-et-Loire department

## References
## Other websites
* Chalon-sur-Saône - official website 
* Le Grand Chalon Agglomération