Courville

Location

Courville lies in the north-west of the Marne département, about 27 kilometres west-north-west of Reims. The village sits in the Ardre valley and belongs to the Tardenois landscape. It is only five kilometres to Fismes, and the cantonal centre of Fismes-Montagne de Reims can also be reached from there. The commune has 448 inhabitants (as at 1 January 2023) and covers 1,194 hectares. Its altitude ranges from 67 to 200 metres.

The name derives from the Latin curba villa: an estate in a bend of the Ardre. The river is 39 kilometres long and flows into the Vesle near Fismes. In the village itself, a hydrological station measures its water levels.

Landscape and cultivation

Courville is neither grand cru nor premier cru, and it is not a well-known wine-growing village. The picture is shaped above all by farming: a good 80 per cent of the land is used for agriculture, most of it arable (78.5 per cent). Woodland takes up 15.2 per cent, permanent crops 3.2 per cent. The climate is oceanic, with an annual average of around 10.4 degrees and a little over 700 millimetres of rainfall. For the champagne lover, Courville remains a place on the edge of the famous sites, one you visit more for its history.

“The commune has 448 inhabitants (as at 1 January 2023) and covers 1,194 hectares.

History

Courville was once a fortified town, and parts of its wall are still visible today. From the 7th century until the French Revolution the village belonged to the estates of the Archbishops of Reims. From the Renaissance onwards the château served them as a summer residence. It formed part of the diocese's southern belt of fortifications. In 1792 it was declared national property and sold off in parcels, and in 1918 the German army destroyed it.

In the First World War an airfield was built on the plateau of the Ferme de la Bonne Maison, sending squadrons to the nearby Chemin des Dames. In 1917 the Cigognes squadron was stationed there, and in 1918 British and American pilots flew from the site. The American pilot William Muir Russel, killed in air combat in July 1918, is buried in the cemetery at Courville. His father Henry Russel donated a large sum to the ruined village. It paid for a water supply and a new wash-house, inaugurated in 1926.

De Venoge Champagner

Things to see

• The church of Saint-Julien, dating from the 11th century and protected as a monument historique
• The Gothic chapel of the archbishops above the church, once reached directly from the château by a two-storey walkway
• Remains of the old town fortifications
• The “American wash-house” (Lavoir américain), renovated in 2010

If you are travelling through the champagne country around Reims, Courville combines well with a detour to Fismes, and makes a quiet historical stop along the way.