Saône-et-Loire

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Saône-et-Loire

The Saône-et-Loire coat of arms
Location

Administration
Département number:	71
Région:	Bourgogne
Préfecture:	Mâcon
Sub-Préfectures:	Autun Chalon-sur-Saône Charolles Louhans
Arrondissements:	5
Cantons:	57
Communes:	573
Conseiller Général:	Christophe Sirugue
Statistics
Population	Ranked 42nd
-1999	544,893
Population density:	64/km²
Land area¹:	8575 km²

¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km².

Saône-et-Loire is a French département, named after the Saône and the Loire rivers between which it lies.

1 History
2 Geography
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

When it was formed during the French Revolution, as of March 4, 1790 in fulfillment of the law of December 22, 1789, the new département combined parts of the provinces of southern Burgundy and Bresse, uniting pays that had no previous common history nor political unity and which have no true geographical unity. Thus its history is that of Burgundy, and is especially to be found in the local histories of Autun, Mâcon, Chalon-sur-Saône, Charolles and Louhans.

[edit] Geography

Saône-et-Loire is the seventh largest département of France and the most densely populated in the région of Bourgogne. In the west the département is composed of the hills of the Autunois, the region around Autun, of the Charollais and of the Mâconnais. In the center it is traversed from north to south by the Saône in its wide plain; the Saône is a tributary of the River Rhône that joins it at Lyon and thus is connected to the Mediterranean. The Loire makes its way in the opposite direction, emptying into the Atlantic. In the east the département contains the northern part of the plain of Bresse. In the west its industrial heart is in Le Creusot and Montceau-les-Mines.