- Département
- Marne (Grand Est region)
- Site
- Western Champagne sèche (the 'dry' Champagne), 4 km south-east of Sézanne
- Inhabitants
- 166 (2023 figures)
- Source
- Wikipedia, eigene Zusammenfassung
Chichey is a small rural commune of 166 inhabitants, four kilometres south-east of Sézanne in the Champagne sèche. It is an arable farming village with no cru classification, but close to the vineyard slopes around Sézanne.
Location
Chichey lies in the Marne département in the Grand Est region, in the west of the Champagne sèche. Sézanne is four kilometres to the north-west. Administratively, the commune belongs to the canton of Sézanne-Brie et Champagne and the arrondissement of Épernay. It also sits within the catchment area of Sézanne, whose Aire d'attraction takes in 37 communes.
Chichey is small: the 2023 census counted 166 inhabitants, a little over 5 per cent fewer than in 2017. The statistics classify it as a rural commune with scattered housing. In French, the inhabitants are called Chichetons.
Landscape and climate
The commune's land is almost entirely agricultural. According to the 2018 data, 95.5 per cent of the area is arable land, 3.4 per cent is built up and 1.2 per cent is wooded. That fits the picture of the Champagne sèche, a landscape of wide open fields.
Several small watercourses run through the area. The Canal de Choisel is twelve kilometres long, not navigable, and links Chichey with Anglure, where it flows into the Ru de Choisel.
According to the 2018 data, 95.5 per cent of the area is arable land, 3.4 per cent is built up and 1.2 per cent is wooded.
The climate is temperate oceanic with cool summers. The nearest Météo-France station, at Esternay, 15 kilometres away, recorded a mean annual temperature of 11.0 °C and roughly 701 millimetres of rainfall for 1991 to 2020. The extremes were 41.4 °C (25 July 2019) and minus 16 °C (8 January 2010).
The name and what to see
The name of the village has changed over the centuries. Around 1220 it appears as La Marche, in 1327 as Chichiacum prope Sezaniam, meaning Chichey near Sézanne, and in 1401 for the first time in today's spelling.
- Church of Saint-Étienne: the village's best-known building
- The Canal de Choisel and the surrounding fields for walks
Chichey and champagne
Chichey is neither grand cru nor premier cru, and there is no documented winegrowing tradition in the village itself. Even so, it makes a quiet base for wine lovers: Sézanne, only a few minutes away, is the main town of the Côte de Sézanne, regarded as the southern extension of the Côte des Blancs. Chardonnay is the main grape there, and you will find growers who welcome visitors for tastings.
If you would like to get to know Champagne beyond the big names, Chichey works well as a starting point for trips into the vineyard slopes of the surrounding area.
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