Drouilly

Drouilly is a small village in the Marne département, on the south-eastern edge of the Champagne region. With 145 inhabitants (2023), it is one of the very smallest communes in the area. Anyone hoping for champagne glamour will not find it here. For wine lovers, the village is interesting mainly as a glimpse of rural Champagne away from the famous vineyard sites.

Location

Drouilly lies on the Marne, about eight kilometres north-west of Vitry-le-François. Its neighbouring communes are Soulanges, Loisy-sur-Marne, Maisons-en-Champagne and Pringy. The commune covers 2.42 square kilometres and stretches over roughly 4.5 kilometres, from the Champagne crayeuse, the chalky Champagne, down to the banks of the Marne and the Guenelle. The altitude varies between 92 metres in the east and 136 metres in the south-west. The D2 departmental road runs through the village.

Landscape and climate

The Guenelle, a tributary of the Marne, rises at Glannes and flows into the Marne at Mairy-sur-Marne after 30 kilometres. The Valmont stream also drains the commune. The landscape is open and shaped by farming: around 85.7 per cent of the land is arable and just under 12 per cent is woodland. The climate is temperate oceanic with cool summers. At the nearest weather station, in Frignicourt, the annual mean for 1991 to 2020 is 11.5 °C, with rainfall of about 695 millimetres a year.

“With 145 inhabitants (2023), it is one of the very smallest communes in the area.

Drouilly and champagne

Drouilly is neither grand cru nor premier cru. The sources available also mention no significant viticulture or champagne houses in the village. It therefore stands for the Champagne beyond the vine slopes: chalk soil, fields and river valleys, as found across large parts of the département. For a trip, Drouilly makes a quiet stopover, for instance on the way to Vitry-le-François.

Chateau de Bligny Champagner

Name and sights

The village name is recorded from the late 10th century, then in the form Druliacum. Over the centuries it changed through Drulleium, Druilly and Deuilly to today's spelling. Around 1860 there is even the variant Drouilly-sur-l'Isson. The inhabitants are called Drouillotins and Drouillotines.

The church of Saint-Hilaire is listed as the one sight of note.

• Département: Marne, Grand Est region
• Area: 2.42 km²
• Population: 145 (2023)
• Worth seeing: Church of Saint-Hilaire