Colombé-la-Fosse

Location

Colombé-la-Fosse lies in the east of the Aube département, about 53 kilometres east of Troyes and 7 kilometres north-east of Bar-sur-Aube. The commune consists of the village itself and the farmstead of Ferme de Rome. Its neighbours include Maisons-lès-Soulaines to the north, Colombé-le-Sec to the east and south, Voigny to the south-west and Arrentières to the west.

The Bresse, a stream 12 kilometres long, rises within the commune and flows into the Aube at Ailleville. On 1 January 2023 the village had 162 inhabitants, around 16 per cent fewer than in 2017. The inhabitants are known as Conivans. Administratively, the commune belongs to the Communauté de communes de Soulaines and the canton of Bar-sur-Aube. Insee classes it as a rural commune with a scattered settlement pattern.

Landscape and viticulture

Colombé-la-Fosse is classified neither as grand cru nor as premier cru. Anyone hoping to learn about champagne here will mostly discover the rural side of the south. Bar-sur-Aube belongs to the Côte des Bar, that part of Champagne in the Aube where pinot noir sets the tone.

“On 1 January 2023 the village had 162 inhabitants, around 16 per cent fewer than in 2017.

Land use shows just how quiet and farming-minded the commune is. According to Corine Land Cover data, around 74 per cent of the land was given over to agriculture in 2018:

• Arable land: 54.6 per cent
• Woodland: 22.6 per cent
• Permanent crops: 16.8 per cent
• Built-up area: 3.1 per cent
• Meadows: 2.7 per cent

In this region, permanent crops generally means vineyards. The climate is temperate, with cool summers. For 1971 to 2000 the mean annual temperature is 10.4 °C and annual rainfall 894 millimetres. The nearest weather station, at Ailleville, recorded a high of 41.3 °C on 25 July 2019 and a low of −19.7 °C on 20 December 2009. For growing vines, extremes like these are a real challenge.

Colombé-le-Sec in der ChampagneFoto: Roland45, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

History

Until the French Revolution, Colombé-la-Fosse lay in the province of Champagne. From 1793 to 1801 the village belonged to the district of Bar-sur-Aube and was assigned to the canton of Ville sur Terre. Since 1801 it has been part of the arrondissement of Bar-sur-Aube. Until 2015 the commune lay in the canton of Soulaines-Dhuys; today it belongs to the canton of Bar-sur-Aube.

Things to see

The village is small, but two of its sites are listed as historic monuments. If you are travelling around Bar-sur-Aube, it makes for a short stop:

• Church of Saint-Louvent (Monument historique)
• Cross in the village cemetery (Monument historique)
• Wayside cross on the road to Saulcy
• War memorial

Bar-sur-Aube, only a few minutes away by car, makes a good base for visiting growers on the Côte des Bar.