Brasles

Setting on the Marne

Brasles adjoins Château-Thierry to the east, about two kilometres from the town centre. The commune sits right on the Marne, roughly 50 kilometres west-south-west of Reims and 82 kilometres east-north-east of Paris. Its neighbours are Verdilly, Gland, Blesmes and Chierry, as well as Château-Thierry itself. Statistically, Brasles belongs to the Château-Thierry urban area and counts as part of its banlieue.

The landscape is mixed: a good half of the commune's land is farmed, with woodland and housing making up the rest. For 2018, the European land-use statistics show around 12.7 per cent permanent crops. The climate is oceanic, with an average annual temperature of about 10.6 °C and just over 700 millimetres of rainfall (measured at the nearby station in Blesmes, 1991 to 2020).

Viticulture

Brasles lies outside the Grand Est region, yet it belongs to the Champagne wine-growing area. That puts it in the western tail of the Marne Valley, the stretch around Château-Thierry where Champagne meets the Île-de-France. Brasles has no Grand Cru or Premier Cru classification. If you are looking for champagne here, you are more likely to find it with the small growers of the surrounding area than under any of the big names.

“For 2018, the European land-use statistics show around 12.7 per cent permanent crops.

History

Brasles was a village of the old Brie champenoise. The parish belonged to the diocese of Soissons, and the church is dedicated to Saint Quentin. In a clearing at the Bois de Barbillon stood the Maladrerie, a hospital for lepers. Between 1695 and 1698, Louis XIV ordered some twenty such institutions in the area to be transferred to the Hôtel-Dieu of Château-Thierry, among them the one at Brasles.

In May and June 1918, during the Second Battle of the Marne, the whole district was devastated. Château-Thierry came under artillery fire, and Brasles and the surrounding villages were reduced to rubble. On 18 July 1918 the Franco-American counter-offensive began, sealing the failure of the German advance.

Alfred Gratien Champagner

Sights

• The church of Saint-Quentin
• Two lavoirs, the village's old wash-houses
• The Château de Brasles, once surrounded by moats and heavily altered in the 19th century

Of the former Abbaye de Val-Secret, which stood about three kilometres to the north-east on the old Roman road, nothing can be seen today.

Practical information

Brasles had exactly 1,788 inhabitants in 2023, and its residents are called Braslois. The best-known local figure is the politician Jacques Krabal, who was mayor from 1983 to 2008. For champagne travellers, Brasles is above all a quiet base from which to explore Château-Thierry and the western Marne Valley.