Editing. Landscapes of the Saône-et-Loire yesterday and today in the book

Comparison of the landscape yesterday and today. Here is the topic of the new book he edited Le JSL. “Before and after” which sometimes surprises, and which always brings the reader back to the story. Thanks to the picture, we remember, we measure the evolution of our landscapes between the 1950s and today. Evolution sometimes natural, but often caused by man. How has Saône-et-Loire covered the decades? To what extent have the cities of Mâcon or Chalon-sur-Saône developed?

Satellite images

To answer this question, the aerial views of the National Geographic and Forest Information Institute (IGN) from the 1950s, compared to those of today, are remarkably accurate and offer valuable benchmarks regarding the evolution, even transformation, of our territories. Therefore, we compare, describing what was, what is no longer and what has been replaced, placing ourselves 500 meters above the ground or at human height, on a sidewalk, a square… Thanks to image archives compared to today’s recordings, the differences are often noticeable.

In Mâcon, Quai Lamartine has changed its face in 70 years. Chalon-sur-Saône experienced a significant increase in population, and the town’s boundaries were moved. Tournus lost its road slide and Montceau-les-Mines saw the complete rehabilitation of its old mines. RCEA and A6 significantly changed campaigns, just like the arrival of the TGV in Le Creusot.

Virginie Juteau, architect, and Emmanuelle Limare, landscape designer, for the Council for Architecture, Urbanism and the Environment (CAUE) 71, help us analyze the peculiarities of the Saône-et-Loire landscape.

If part of the work is dedicated to the sites of Saône-et-Loire, it is also completed by the departments of Côte-d’Or and Jura.

PRACTICAL Pictures of yesterday and today, how our towns and villages have changed: Le JSL, 132 pages, €22, on newsstands from December 5.