Every design for Chalon-Sur-Saône

Do you know the town where photography was born? For the people of Chalon-sur-Saône, Nicéphore Niépce is not a footnote in a textbook but a neighbour, with a lycée named after him and his inventions displayed on the quay.

The Musée de la Photographie Nicéphore Nièpce stands on the Quai des Messageries, holding cameras, early images and even the Pyréolophore, one of the first internal combustion engines. A short walk away, the Musée Vivant Denon honours another local, one of the men behind the Louvre. Chalon has been a river port since Roman times, when it was Cabillonum, and later a capital of the Burgundian king Guntram, who died here. Wine went up and down the Saône and the Canal du Centre, and the Obélisque du Canal du Centre still honours that waterway. It is the largest town in Saône-et-Loire, yet it never needed the title of capital to feel at the centre of things.

Wherever you have settled since, the bend of the Saône on this map is the one you grew up beside.