Mâcon

Mâcon historically anglicised as Mascon, is a city in east-central France. It is the prefecture of the department of Saône-et-Loire in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Mâcon is home to near 34,000 residents, who are referred to in French as Mâconnais. The city gave its name to the nearby vineyards and wine ‘appellation’.

Government
Country	France
Region	Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Department	Saône-et-Loire
Canton	Mâcon-1 and 2
Mayor (2020–2026)	Jean-Patrick Courtois
Area¹	27.04 km² (10.44 sq mi)
Population	33,638
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)

Location

The city lies on the western bank of the river Saône, between Bresse in the east and the Beaujolais hills in the south. Mâcon is the southernmost city in the department of Saône-et-Loire and the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is 65 kilometres (40 miles) north of Lyon and 400 kilometres (249 miles) from Paris. The climate is temperate with a slight continental tendency.

Economy

Viticulture and maturing
Industrial River Port
Metallurgy
Logistics and road transport
Boating

Mâcon holds the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Saône-et-Loire, which manages the river port of Mâcon through Aproport, the Automotive Training Center (CFA Automobile) and the Mâcon-Charnay airport. The headquarters for the Chamber of Agriculture of Saône-et-Loire is also based in Mâcon.

Transportation

Mâcon is connected to neighbouring major cities through various routes:

Roads:
- A6 motorway (Route: Paris-Lyon)
- A406 Motorway (bypass south of Mâcon)
- The François Mitterrand Bridge is the second work of construction connecting Mâcon to the left bank of the Saône River
Railway Infrastructures:
- Gare de Mâcon Loché TGV (routes: Paris-Marseille and Paris-Geneva)
- Gare de Mâcon-Ville (routes Dijon-Lyon and Dijon-Marseille)
River infrastructures:
- The Saône river which allows access to the Mediterranean Sea via the Rhône River

Public transport

Mâcon uses the urban transport service Tréma, run by the organising transport authorities, the SITUM (Inter-communal City Transport Union of Mâconnais – Val de Saône). The SITUM currently consists of 3 members: CAMVAL (Agglomeration Community of Mâcon-Val de Saône) (26 communes) and the Chaintré and Crêches-sur-Saône communes. The Urban Transport Area of the SITUM extends over 28 communes in total.

Education

Mâcon has five collèges and four lycées. These establishments are in the same area in the west of the city, with the exception of the collèges Schuman (north) and Saint-Exupery (south).

Collèges
- Collège Louis Pasteur
- Collège Bréart
- Collège Schuman
- Collège Saint-Exupéry
- Collège Notre-Dame (private)
Lycées
- Lycée Lamartine
- Lycée René-Cassin
- Lycée hôtelier Dumaine
- Lycée Ozanam (private)
Higher Education: Burgundy Higher School of Teaching and Education

Health

The field of health has long been present in the city, the Hôtel-Dieu or the Hospice de la Charité can attest to this. In 1908, the first private Macon clinic founded by Jean-Baptiste Denis. Sixty years later, Doctors André Lapras and Claude Gabrielle in turn created the Val Fleuri clinic. Even though they were competitors, the two companies began to work together in 1988 for the joint construction of a nuclear medicine center. In 1997 , they merged and in 2007 built the Val de Saône polyclinic.

We can also mention the Bel-Air and Hôtel-Dieu sites in addition to extra-hospital structures for psychiatry, EHPAD and educational establishments.

Culture and Heritage

Sights

The Old Saint-Vincent in the town centre
Mâcon Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Vincent de Mâcon) in the town centre
Museum of Fine Arts (former Ursuline Convent)
Hôtel de Senecé (Lamartine museum)
Saint-Clément Catholic Church in the district of Saint-Clément
Church Saint-Pierre, Place Saint-Pierre, opposite the Town Hall
The Municipal Olympic Pool of Mâcon
The Maison des Vins or Maison Maconnaise des Vins, on De-Lattre de Tassigny Avenue.
The Quai Lamartine (quay), the Vallon des Rigollettes, the Physical Activity Training Course (P.A.P.A) and the Marina: many places suitable for walking and relaxing.
The Theater of Mâcon (public theatre) close to the Maison des vins, Droits de l’Homme esplanade.
Château Saint-Jean, in the old commune of Saint-Jean-le-Priche annexed to Mâcon in 1972
Château des Perrières, on a hill overlooking the town

Culture

The “Eté frappé” Festival, a free art and music festival, takes place every summer from June to August all over the town featuring many concerts of a wide range of musical styles (classical, French song, jazz, rock, folk, hip-hop, rap), many shows (dance, comedy), open air film shows, open air plays, sporting events.

Every year in July, the Crescent Jazz Club holds a jazz festival during three days (as part of the “Eté frappé” Festival) featuring international jazz musicians.

Wine

The area west and north of Mâcon produces well-known wines from the Chardonnay grape. The best known appellation of the Mâconnais is Pouilly-Fuissé.

Natural heritage

A few parks, gardens and squares are scattered around the city. Among them, we can cite the Saint-Nicolas meadow, the Rigolettes valley, the Peace Square, the Abîme park or the Pierre Sémard garden. These places are part of the 6,000 m ² of planted and flowered surfaces.

The city was awarded in 2007 with the Grand Prix distinction and four flowers in the competition of towns and villages in bloom. To ensure these rewards, 300,000 flowers are planted each year in municipal greenhouses before being planted in green spaces and city roundabouts.

Culinary heritage

Among the specialties of Mâcon stand out the Mâconnaise andouillette with its red or white wine sauce, eggs in meurette or grattons. Other specialties characterize the local gastronomy including the Mâconnais ideal, a meringue-based cake filled with butter cream or the Mâconnaise wafer which is a sweet pastry made of a very thin waffle rolled into a cigarette, hence the name.

The city is surrounded by a 5,000 ha vineyard which produces 49 million bottles, including famous vintages such as Saint-Véran or Pouilly-Fuissé. Every January takes place in Mâcon a major competition open to all wine growers and cooperatives of the districts of Mâcon and Villefranche-sur-Saône : the contest of the Mâconnais wines and Beaujolais St. Vincent.

The Mâconnais has various specialties of goat cheese including the Mâconnais , also called chèvreton de Mâcon, benefiting from an AOC and matching with the tasting of white Mâconnais wines.

West of Mâcon is the Charolais region , famous for its white- coated Charolais cattle . To the east of Mâcon, on the other side of the Saône is Bresse, renowned for its white poultry , the only ones to benefit from an AOC.

Tourism

In Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, you can see:

The Arboretum de Pézanin, one of the richest tree collections in France, near Mâcon,
The Rock of Solutré,
Cluny abbey of vast size and complex elevations and its medieval city of small proportions.
Charolles and its breed of cattle, “le boeuf charolais”.
Paray-le-Monial with its church modelled as a smaller version of Cluny abbey, cloistered garden, basilica, museum and ornate town hall.

Sports and leisure

Mâcon has 73 clubs with 55 organisations, 40 different sports to play, and 14,506 members of a sports association (42% of the population). It was elected the most sportive town in France in 2001.

The A.S Mâcon rugby club is now progressing to ‘Fédérale 1’ (the third division in the rugby union club championship).
The rowing club (the Régates Mâconnaises) is a leading sport clubs in the town. Each year it organises several major events (regional, national championships) and sends many of its rowers to the biggest competitions.
A motor boating Grand Prix is held annually in late September (part of the speed championship of France in categories S2000 and S3000).
The Municipal Band of Mâcon.
The Mâcon Academy is extensive and nationally recognised.