Last modified: 2019-04-28 by ivan sache
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![[Flag]](../images/f/fr-69-cb.gif)
Flag of Charbonnières-les-Bains - Image by Ivan Sache, 11 May 2003
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The municipality of Charbonnières-les-Bains (4,541 inhabitants; 413 ha; municipal website) is located 10 km north-west of the center of Lyon. The name of the town probably refers to old charcoal production (in French, charbon; a charcoal burner, charbonnier; a charcoal kiln and production place, charbonnière) but the town was mostly known as a renowned spa, therefore the addition of -"les-Bains".
The legend says that the source that made the wealth of the town was
discovered by a donkey. A poor lumberjack owning only one axe once
lived alone in the valley of Charbonnières with his daughter Lison and his
donkey Cadichon. Poor Cadichon grew older and older and could no longer
transport wood, and the lumberjack reluctantly decided to abandon it in
the deep forest. Lison later went into the forest, where two rascals
attempted to abduct her. They were repelled by a fierce animal, which
Lison immediatly recognized as Cadichon, totally revamped. The donkey
jumped through a bush and drank water from a source. The water had a
strange taste; chemists commissioned by the bailiff to analyze it stated that the source was miraculous, Lison sold the water, became wealthy and married the bailiff's son.
The thermal "miraculous" source of Charbonnières was indeed discovered
by Priest Louis Rougeat de Marsonnat, but the legend remained so vivid
that a donkey race field (asinodrome) was built at the end of the
19th century and used until the First World War. The iron-bearing
waters and muds were exploited for the first time around 1850; the spa
was rebuilt for the last time in 1953 and closed and suppressed some
thirty years later.
The municipality of Charbonnières shares with the neigbouring
municipalities of Marcy-l'Etoile and La Tour-de-Salvagny the
departmental parc of Lacroix Laval (140 ha), known locally as the green
lung of Lyon. The casino shared with La Tour-de-Salvagny is called Lyon
Vert (Green Lyon).
In 1947, the Société Minérale des Eaux de Charbonnières organized with the Automobile Club du Rhône and the Moto Club du Rhône the first Lyon-Charbonnières rally. The race became then the International Lyon Charbonnières Stuttgart Solitude rallye, with concentration routes starting from different European cities (like the Monte-Carlo rallye). In 1976, "Charbo" became a leg of the French Rally Championship. The rally is today called Lyon-Charbonnières Rhône Rallye.
Ivan Sache, 19 May 2006
The flag of Charbonnières-les-Bains is vertically divided red-yellow, which are the colours of the chief of the municipal arms.
Pascal Vagnat, 19 May 2006