Cerseuil

Location

Cerseuil lies in the Aisne département in the Hauts-de-France region, which used to be part of Picardy. The village sits to the south, above the Vesle valley, a left-bank tributary of the Aisne. Soissons is about 18 kilometres away, and Braine to the north is roughly 4.5 kilometres off. Fismes, which is already in the Marne département, is about 14 kilometres to the east. The hamlet of Le Moulin also belongs to the commune.

Its neighbours are Braine, Limé, Jouaignes, Lesges, Couvrelles and Augy. With 87 inhabitants (as at 1 January 2023), Cerseuil is a very small place with widely scattered buildings and no urban surroundings.

Landscape and viticulture

To be honest, Cerseuil is not a must-see for champagne lovers. The sources mention no vineyard plots, no growers and no champagne houses, and the village is neither grand cru nor premier cru. What you see here is mostly farmland: around 70 per cent of the commune's area is arable land, and about a quarter is woodland.

The climate is oceanic. At the nearest weather station, in Braine, the annual mean for 1991 to 2020 was 11.3 °C, with rainfall adding up to about 663 millimetres. In July 2019, 42.1 °C was recorded there. Figures like these show how much the climate is changing even in northern France, a subject that concerns viticulture across the whole region.

“At the nearest weather station, in Braine, the annual mean for 1991 to 2020 was 11.3 °C, with rainfall adding up to about 663 millimetres.

Name and administration

The village name is already recorded in the 9th century as Cersoilus. Over the centuries it appeared in many spellings, for example Celsiolus (1137) or Cerceuil (1710). Administratively, Cerseuil belongs to the arrondissement of Soissons, the canton of Fère-en-Tardenois and the Communauté de communes du Val de l'Aisne.

Sights

The most important building is the church of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries. It is protected as a monument historique. Very close by, though on the territory of Braine, stands the Château de la Folie d'Aigremont. A book about the château and the village by Stanislas Prioux appeared in 1860, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France makes it available online on Gallica.

• Church of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul (12th and 13th centuries, monument historique)
• Château de la Folie d'Aigremont (commune of Braine)
• Quiet paths through fields and woods above the Vesle valley

Cerseuil makes a peaceful stop on a drive through the north of the Aisne département. If you want to taste champagne, you are better off planning visits in the wine-growing areas further south and east.