Tournus

Tournus is a municipality with 5814 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2011 ) in the French department of Saône- et- Loire in Burgundy.

Tournus is a member of the Association of Municipalities Communauté de communes du Tournugeois.

Geography

Tournus is located on the right bank of the Saône River, about 28 kilometers north of Macon and about 26 km south of Chalon -sur -Saône.

Economy

In the area of wine prevails. Tournus is part of the Macon Villages appellation. There are also quarries in the area. Traditional chairs are manufactured in Tournus.

Traffic

Tournus is located on the railway line Mâcon - Chalon -sur -Saône, on the A6, at the RN 6, and on the navigable in this area Saône.

Twinning

• Germersheim, in Rhineland -Palatinate, Germany

Demographics

Attractions

• Saint Philibert: The Church of Saint Philibert from the early 11th century (named after St. Philibert, whose relics were brought here at the time of the raids of the Normans ) once belonged to the Benedictine Abbey of Tournus. Architectural feature of the Romanesque building is the vault of the nave, whose curvatures are tons transverse to the direction of the nave.

Saint Philibert, barrel vault

Personalities

Sons and daughters:

• Jean -Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805), French painter
• Léopold de Folin (1817-1896), French naval officer, oceanographer and zoologist
• Albert Thibaudet (1874-1936), French literary critic and writer
• Josiane Bost ( b. 1956 ), French cyclist

Others

Tournus was the start of the seventh stage of the Tour de France 2010. Musée de Vélo informed about the development history of the bicycle.