Barging in France: Burgundy – Saône River
The River Saône in southern Burgundy is a generally peaceful river, passing through flat countryside, with a calm and constant flow. One can enjoy a landscape which includes wide meadows with grazing Charolais cattle, buildings with multi-colored Burgundian roofs, and poplars lining the banks.
Part 1: An Overview
The Saône River flows for 300 miles from the Vosges Mountains to its junction with the River Rhone in Lyons and is navigable for 230 miles between Corre and Lyons. The river has supported trade and commerce since prehistoric times. In the early 19th century, the river was alive with fishermen, floating warehouses, and sand and gravel dredgers. Pleasure boaters began to use the River Saône as early as the late 19th century.
Its upper reaches, north of St-Jean-de-Losne, are known by some as La Petite Saône. Winding through partly wooded areas and picturesque countryside, the upper portions are popular with recreational boaters, who share the Saône River with only moderate commercial traffic. A number of artificial cuts and numerous locks have been constructed to bypass some sections of the river to create a more direct passage than the river's natural, meandering route.
The Saône River
At times, the Saône River has been considered a boundary between the east and west of France. Along with the Rhone, it continues to be an important north/south water link. Although increasingly used for pleasure boating, it is still a major waterway for transporting goods. It is considered by many to be the most important navigable river in France because of its junctures with many other rivers and canals.
Part 2: Towns & Villages
St-Jean-de-Losne sits at the juncture of the Saône River with the Canal de Bourgogne. Even before the advent of the canal, the town was a thriving river port. In 1273, the lords of Franché-Comte laid siege to the town with 500 troops dressed up as women. The town uncovered the ruse and killed all of the attackers. In 1636, the Holy Roman Empire threatened the town with 80,000 troops. With 400 citizens and 150 soldiers, to which were added 800 reinforcements from nearby Auxonne, the town miraculously held off the siege. Thereafter, the town was known as La Belle Défense. In 1870, a German advance was also turned away. Clearly this is a town which values its independence.
St-Jean-de-Losne
A large basin, once used to store timber being floated down the River Saône, is now a port used for mooring recreational craft. Today, this is the largest inland port in France. It is also an incredible depot for all things to do with barges. Whether you need water pumps, engines or propellers, St-Jean-de-Losne is the place to go. A regatta, or rally, is held yearly for boating enthusiasts (Note: We participated in the fun when we took our sailboat through the canals from west of Paris to the Mediterranean. Fond memories.). In a restored 15th century house, there is an exhibition titled "The Barges of St-Jean-de-Losne," housing a complete collection of barge equipment, hand pumps, bailers, and wooden jacks used to raise boats in dry dock.
Seurre is a lovely port with shops and numerous alleyways to explore. Horse chestnut trees and attractive brick and stone buildings line the waterfront. Local cuisine features catches from the Saône River (trout and river crayfish), as well as the Burgundian classics of frogs' legs and escargot in a creamy garlic sauce. The Saône Environmental Museum includes a boat-building workshop, a model of a boat called the flute de Bourgogne, and a collection of objects from antiquity found in the river. South of Seurre, the Saône River sometimes reaches a width of up 650 feet.
Some say that Verdun-sur-le-Doubs has the finest waterfront of any Saône town. The river port was established by the Romans in the 1st century AD. The town has a square overlooking the Saône River and is lined with small shops. The pôchouse is the local dish which is made with different types of river fish cooked with a dry white Burgundy wine and cream. The prettiest part of the town is the quarter adjacent to the church of St-Jean. Verdun-sur-le-Doubs was once the site of an important shipyard. The town has a Museum of Wheat and Bread (Musée du Blé et du Pain), linking back to the days when the river was rife with mills, covering the history of 70 centuries of harvesting and 40 centuries of breadmaking.
Chalon-sur-Saône has been an important port since ancient times. Julias Caesar chose it as his winter headquarters, as it is linked to the rest of the Empire by both river and road (it lays on the Via Agrippa). In the 6th century, it was the capital of the Kingdom of Burgundy and, by the 15th and 16th centuries, it was a city both fortified and fashionable. Today, it is one of the major cities in the valley and is both a cosmopolitan and an industrial center. Since the 19th century, it has been a center of passenger boat services and by 1850, 17 steam boats carried more than 1000 passengers daily. Between 1889 and 1906, Schneider-Creusot, a historic iron and steel mill with its roots in Chalon, subsequently became the multi-national conglomerate under the name Schneider Electric. They built many ships for the French navy – 81 torpedo boats, plus submarines and steam tugs – with some transported to the Mediterranean on specially-constructed barges.
More famously, however, the town is the birthplace of Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833), the inventor of photography. A museum honoring him displays a collection of cameras and traces the history of photography as well as an engine design, which he called the Pyréolophore and is considered the world's first internal combustion engine. In 1807, Nicéphore and his brother, Claude, ran a prototype and were granted a patent in the same year by Napoleon after it successfully powered a boat upstream on the Saône River.
French Hotel Barge Finesse
Guests cruising aboard the French Hotel Barge Finesse will have the opportunity to cruise a short stretch of the Sa⊚ne River and visit some the sites listed above.
- Visit their Online brochure