Saône-et-Loire (Department, France)

Last modified: 2024-11-02 by olivier touzeau
Keywords: saone-et-loire |
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Flag of Saône-et-Loire, two versions - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 26 October 2024

• Administrative data
• Flag of Saône-et-Loire
• Flag of the former General Council
• Municipalities
  • Mâcon
  • Cluny
  • Le Creusot
  • Digoin
  • Génelard
  • Louhans
  • Montchanin
  • Saint-Vallier
  • Semur-en-Brionnais
• Intermunicipal Authorities
• Departmental Olympic and Sports Committee
• Rowing clubs

See also:

• France
• France: Metropolitan departments
• Clickable map of France (departments)

Administrative data

Code: 71
Region: Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (Bourgogne until 2014)
Traditional provinces: Bourgogne, Nivernais
Bordering departments: Ain, Allier, Côte-d'Or, Jura, Loire, Nièvre, Rhône

Area: 8,575 km²
Population (2016): 555,023 inhabitants

Préfecture: Mâcon
Sous-préfectures: Autun, Chalon-sur-Saône, Charolles, Louhans
Subdivisions: 5 arrondissements, 29 cantons, 567 municipalities.

The department is named after rivers Saône (480 km), a tributary to the Rhône, and Loire (1,020 km).
A proposal to rename the department "Bourgogne-du-Sud", tabled by the General Council in 2003, was rejected.

Ivan Sache, 14 April 2019

Flag of Saône-et-Loire

The departmental council of Saône-et-Loire adopted in July 2022 a new logo. It was inspired by the tourist communication universe created for the department in 2021 and named Route71 - Bourgogne du Sud.

The new flag has been spotted :

• with a dark blue field, for example on the Parc des expositions of Mâcon: video, photo, photo (2024)
• with a white field, for example during a communication operation bringing together several communities served by Dole airport in Jura: photo, photo (2024).
  

Olivier Touzeau, 26 October 2024

Former flags of Saône-et-Loire

Flags of Saône-et-Loire 2009-2022 , three versions - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 11 June 2021 and (right) 3 July 2022

The flag used by the Departmental Council (photo, photo, photo, photo) is blue with the Council's logo in white. In 2009, the General Council adopted a modernized logo with the wording "saône-et-loire LE DEPARTEMENT".

The white curved elements represent, more or less, the courses of river Loire (left, forming the western border of the department with Allier, and Saône (right, forming the south-eastern border of the department with Ain). The two rivers are connected by the Canal du Centre.
The five horizontal stripes represent the five arrondissements composing the department.

The new logo was designed by Renault Germain, a young designer. He found the original logo "sad, with tacky colors and unaesthetic shapes. There was a disequilibrium between the green stripes and the writing 'Saône-et-Loire'". In the revamped logo, the blue curves representing the rivers are softer and more dynamic, while the five horizontal stripes were re-designed. The typography was made more modern and more legible. The new signature "Saône-et-Loire - le Département" highlights the territorial administration.
[Logo en Vue, 4 March 2010]

The flag is also in use as white with the logo in full colours (photo).

Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 11 June 2021

Besides, a version with the logo in full colours in a white cartouche on a blue field has been spotted too (photo).

Olivier Touzeau, 3 July 2022

Flag of the former General Council

Former flag of the former General Council of Saône-et-Loire - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 6 May 2019

Before 2009, the General Council used a white flag with the Council's former logo.

Olivier Touzeau, 6 May 2019