Pont de Tournus

Tournus is a small town on the right bank of the Saône in southern Burgundy, and its bridge is the crossing that links the old town with the countryside on the far side. The present bridge is a modern structure of steel and concrete, plain in design and meant to carry traffic rather than to impress, so travellers should not expect the arches and towers of the older bridges of the region. Earlier crossings stood on the same line, and for long periods, people relied on ferries and temporary bridges, which depended on the water level and the season. Descriptions of a twelfth-century stone bridge on the site should be treated with caution, as the structure that serves today is of a later period.

The value of the bridge for visitors lies in its view. From the pavement, you can look along the river toward the town's quays, where houses with shutters and old warehouses line the water's edge, and the towers of the abbey church rise behind them. The Saône here is wide and slow, with willows along the banks, and in the evening the light on the water is warm. Walking along the quay on the town side and crossing the bridge to look back makes a pleasant short stroll.

The town's great treasure is the abbey of Saint-Philibert, whose church, begun in the tenth century and completed in the twelfth, is among the most important early Romanesque buildings in France. Its massive piers of pinkish stone, its low, dark crypt, and its series of transverse barrel vaults over the nave, which give the interior a rhythm of arches, are remarkable and unlike most churches. The cloister and the buildings around it are also open, and the Basilica of Saint-Philibert is the first stop for many visitors. In the town, the painter Jean-Baptiste Greuze was born in 1725, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts, the Greuze museum, honours him; the Hôtel-Dieu, an old hospital of the seventeenth century with its apothecary, is another sight. The Centre d'Art Contemporain adds a modern note.

Tournus is also a well-known stopping place for food on the road between Paris and the south, and the surrounding countryside offers the wines of the Mâconnais and the cheeses and poultry of Burgundy and Bresse.

The bridge is free to cross, and a walk takes only a few minutes. It suits walkers and photographers, best at sunrise or sunset.