Saône-et-Loire

**Saône-et-Loire** is a department in the centre of France. It is in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. It is named after the two main rivers in the department: the Saône and the Loire rivers.

The largest city in the department is Chalon-sur-Saône. The prefecture (capital) is the smaller city of Mâcon.

## History
Saône-et-Loire is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 with Mâcon as its capital. It was formed from combined parts of the old provinces of southern *Burgundy* and *Bresse*, uniting lands which have no true geographical unity.

It was divided in seven districts: Autun, Bourbon-Lancy, Chalon-sur-Saône, Charolles, Louhans, Mâcon and Semur-en-Brionnais. That same year, the name of the district Semur-en-Brionnais was changed to Marcigny.

The average temperature for the year in Charnay-lès-Mâcon, to the west of Mâcon and where is the local airport, is . The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of . The coolest month, on average is January, with an average temperature of .

The average amount of precipitation for the year in Charnay-lès-Mâcon is . The month with the most precipitation on average is October with  of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is August with an average of .

The following is a list of the 29 cantons of the Saône-et-Loire department (with their INSEE codes), following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:

# Autun-1 (7101)
# Autun-2 (7102)
# Blanzy (7103)
# Chagny (7104)
# Chalon-sur-Saône-1 (7105)
# Chalon-sur-Saône-2 (7106)
# Chalon-sur-Saône-3 (7107)
# La Chapelle-de-Guinchay (7108)
# Charolles (7109)
# Chauffailles (7110)
# Cluny (7111)
# Le Creusot-1 (7112)
# Le Creusot-2 (7113)
# Cuiseaux(7114)
# Digoin (7115)
# Gergy (7116)
# Givry (7117)
# Gueugnon (7118)
# Hurigny (7119)
# Louhans (7120)
# Mâcon-1 (7121)
# Mâcon-2 (7122)
# Montceau-les-Mines (7123)
# Ouroux-sur-Saône (7124)
# Paray-le-Monial (7125)
# Pierre-de-Bresse (7126)
# Saint-Rémy (7127)
# Saint-Vallier (7128)
# Tournus (7129) 

## Demographics
The inhabitants of Saône-et-Loire are known, in French, as *Saône-et-Loiriens* (women: *Saône-et-Loiriennes*).

Saône-et-Loire had a population, in 2014, of 555,788, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The *arrondissement* of Chalon-sur-Saône, with 200,084 inhabitants, is the *arrondissement* with more inhabitants.

**Evolution of the population in Saône-et-Loire**

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The cities with more than inhabitants in the department are:

## Gallery

File:Saône-et-Loire (septembre 2012) 032.JPG|Lamartine's statue in Mâcon
File:Temple Janus angle.jpg|Temple of Janus in Autun
File:Abbaye Cluny Kreuzgang1.jpg|Cluny Abbey
File:Chalon-sur-Saône--place-du-marché.jpg|Chalon-sur-Saône
File:Autun BasiliqueStLazare03 JPM.JPG|Antun Cathedral.
File:Chalon-sur-Saône.jpg|Chalon-sur-Saône and the Saône river.
File:Profil Maison du Charolais et vaches charolaises.jpg|Cows outside the *Maison du Charolais*, Charolles.
File:Marché de Louhans 048.JPG|Market in Louhans.

## References
## Related pages
* Arrondissements of the Saône-et-Loire department
* Communes of the Saône-et-Loire department

## Other websites
* Departmental Council website 
* Prefecture website  
* Bourgogne du Sud - Tourism en Saône-et-Loire