Chalon Sur Saone

And finally..... we arrive at our Scenic Spaceship - The Scenic Emerald

She was docked in the pretty town of Chalon-sur-Saône, just south of Dijon.

Across the bridge is an island that used to be owned by the Germans, so if you crossed the bridge you were on German territory.  This became a little bit inconvenient, so the French took it back - and rightly so!

This was the pretty view from our cabin window.

Every year, they plant flowers as a memorial of what ever is relevant at the time.  This was a remembrance to the war.

Another of Chalon-sur-Saône's claims to fame was that it was the birthplace of 

Joseph Nicèphore Nièpce (try pronouncing that!) The founder of Photography.  The chap who took the first ever photograph.

Here is the first ever photo taken

Probably a bit high on the ISO do you think?

Joseph Nicèphore Nieèpce was born in 1765, right here in Chalon-sur-Saône.  He enjoyed a comfortable, middle class upbringing and after careers in teaching and serving in the military he returned home in 1801 to manage his family estate (as you do, or did).  He developed an interest in science when he began working with his brother, Claude on various experiments and inventions.

As early as 1793, the brothers had discussed the possibility of using light to reproduce images.  JNN's earlier experiments in this direction began in 1816.  His progress was slow because photography was not his sole, or even primary interest.  The invention on which the brothers expended most of their efforts, innovation and money was a combustion engine to propel boats.

Once lithography became popular, Joe's interest was piqued and he went back to  experimenting again.  It wasn't until the mid - 1820s that he succeeded, but several days of exposure in the camera were required and the earliest results were very crude. His associate, Louis Daguerre went on to develop the daguerreotype process, the first publicly announced photographic process, which required only minutes of exposure in the camera and produced clear, finely detailed results.  It was commercially introduced in 1839, a date generally accepted as the birth year of practical photography.

Unfortunately, Joe had died by then and so it was Thomas who claimed all the glory. 

 It took a bit of digging by the people from Chalon-sur-Saône to come up with the evidence that Nicy had something to do with it, so he could get some well earned glory and so they could put up a statue in their town and claim some of the glory for themselves.

There is a museum here where I assume they show all the processes that would have been used and stories of the lives of these prominent fellows, but alas, as my luck would have it, the museum is ferme le mardi - closed on Tuesdays! 

I should have rubbed that owl harder!