Roanne is a commune in the Loire department in central France.It is located 90km northwest of Lyon on the Loire River. It has an important Museum, the Musée de Beaux-arts et d'Archéologie Joseph Déchelette (French), with many Egyptian artifacts.EconomyRoanne is known for gastronomy (largely because of the famous Troisgros family), textiles, agriculture and manufacturing tanks.HistoryThe toponomy is Gaulish, Rod-Onna ("flowing water") which became Rodumna, then Rouhanne and Roanne. The town was sited at a strategic point, the head of navigation on the Loire, below its narrow gorges. As a trans-shipping point, its importance declined with the collapse of long-distance trade after the fourth century. In the twelfth century, the site passed to the comte du Forez, under whose care it began to recover. An overland route led to Lyon and the Rhône, thus Roanne developed as a transshipping point between Paris and the Mediterranean in early modern France, when waterways were at least as important as roads.