Esternay

Location

Esternay lies in the west of the Marne département, on the national road RN 4, formerly the RN 34. Seen from Épernay, you will find it to the west, on the edge of the region. The commune belongs to the arrondissement of Épernay and the canton of Sézanne-Brie et Champagne. At the start of 2023 it had 1,748 inhabitants. The main village is divided into several quarters, including Le Vivier and Retourneloup, with a few hamlets besides. Official statistics class Esternay as a rural market town, outside the larger urban areas.

Landscape and viticulture

Esternay is neither a grand cru nor a premier cru. Fields and woodland shape the landscape: a good half of the commune's area is arable land, and a good third is forest. The Grand Morin flows through the territory, as does the small stream Ru de la Noue. The climate is oceanic, with an average annual temperature of 11.0 °C and around 701 mm of rainfall (period 1991 to 2020). The weather station recorded a peak of 41.4 °C on 25 July 2019, and a low of minus 16 °C on 8 January 2010. If you are looking for champagne here, expect to find it in your glass rather than on the vine slopes: viticulture plays no part in the information available on the commune.

“The climate is oceanic, with an average annual temperature of 11.0 °C and around 701 mm of rainfall (period 1991 to 2020).

History

The first traces of settlement date from Roman times. In the Middle Ages a castle and a church were built, but in 1567 a fire destroyed the church, and the neglected castle was abandoned. In the 16th century a new château was built, financed by the Raguier brothers, the treasurers of Francis I. Some of the building material came from the old fortress. In 1655 Abraham Fabert, later Marshal of France, acquired the lordship.

In 1814 Napoleon spent the night at the château during the campaign in France, with an army of 40,000 men. Soon afterwards Prussian troops plundered the building. In September 1914 Esternay lay on the front line of the First Battle of the Marne. French regiments retook the château on 6 and 7 September, taking around 500 prisoners. It then served as a field hospital. On 27 August 1944 American troops liberated the village.

Laurent-Perrier Champagne

The local economy once had its own character too: at the start of the 19th century there were three porcelain manufactories. The largest, founded in Retourneloup in 1834, employed more than 150 workers and mainly made household tableware.

Sights

• The château ruins of Esternay: what remains of the château that saw Napoleon and two wars
• The church of Saint-Remi, rebuilt from 1616
• The war memorial (Monument aux Morts) at the locality of Le Marais, erected in 1924 by the Lhéritier brothers

Since 1968 Esternay has been twinned with Etzenrot, part of Waldbronn in Baden-Württemberg. The railway station, opened in 1895, now serves freight traffic only. For lovers of good food and drink, the village is therefore above all a stop steeped in history on the way through the west of Champagne.