Bar-sur-Aube

Location

Bar-sur-Aube lies in the south of Champagne, at the foot of the Colline Sainte-Germaine, an outlier of the Côte des Bar. The town belongs to the Aube département in the Grand Est region and is its sub-prefecture. It sits about 50 kilometres east of Troyes, and Paris is roughly 200 kilometres away. The River Aube, which gives both the town and the département its name, flows through it, and the Bresse joins it here. On 1 January 2023 Bar-sur-Aube had 4,665 inhabitants. The commune ranges from 156 to 348 metres in altitude and is surrounded by hills and slopes. It has no Grand Cru or Premier Cru classification.

Viticulture

The Côte des Bar shapes the south of Champagne, and Bar-sur-Aube is its natural centre. Vineyards here alternate with woodland and meadows, a picture quite different from the countryside around the Marne. In the Aube, Pinot Noir traditionally plays the leading role. Anyone tasting champagne from here will often meet powerful, fruit-driven wines. Bar-sur-Aube is not a pure wine-growing town, though: within the town limits, arable land, meadows and woodland dominate, and permanent crops make up a good 7 per cent of the area according to 2018 land-use data.

“Later the town was repeatedly at the centre of wartime events: in 1814 the battle between Napoleon and the Allied troops was fought here.

History

The site was settled even before Roman times. On the Colline Sainte-Germaine a coin die bearing the name of the Lingones chieftain Togirix was found. In the High and Late Middle Ages, Bar-sur-Aube was an important trading centre under the Counts of Champagne, as one of the great Champagne fairs took place here. A plague epidemic ended it in 1636. Later the town was repeatedly at the centre of wartime events: in 1814 the battle between Napoleon and the Allied troops was fought here. In September 1914 General Joffre briefly had his headquarters in the town.

Paul Goerg Champagner Trauben

Sights

Bar-sur-Aube carries the «Petite Cité de Caractère» label. A stroll through the old town is especially rewarding for lovers of medieval architecture:

• Église Saint-Pierre, 12th century, early Burgundian Gothic, with the Halloy, a wooden gallery that once served merchants as a sales space
• Église Saint-Maclou, 12th and 14th centuries, whose tower comes from a castle of the Counts
• Cellier des Moines, 12th century, once the house of the monks of Clairvaux
• Town hall in the former Ursuline convent from the 17th century
• Saint-Jean chapel of the Order of Saint-Jean

Getting there

The town can be reached by the A5 motorway. The station is on the Paris–Mulhouse line, and TER trains connect Bar-sur-Aube with Troyes and Paris-Est. This makes the town a good starting point for a trip through the vineyards of the Côte des Bar.