Fismes

Location

Fismes lies in the north-west of the Marne département, close to the border with the Aisne département and so with the Hauts-de-France region. It is about 22 kilometres from Reims as the crow flies, and around 28 kilometres by road. The Route nationale 31 links Reims with Soissons here, and the station is served by TER trains towards Reims. The town sits in the Vesle valley, just before the River Ardre joins it. To the south the Mont Saint-Martin rises above the town, and the heights of the commune range from 57 to 179 metres.

Landscape and viticulture

Fismes is not a champagne village in the strict sense, and it is neither grand cru nor premier cru. The commune belongs to the agricultural region of the Tardenois. Just over half of the land is arable (55.4%) and about a fifth is woodland (20.7%). Vineyards play no discernible part in the land use. The climate is oceanic: for 1971 to 2000 the mean annual temperature is 10.4 °C and rainfall is about 695 millimetres. As a stopover between the wine villages of Champagne and the Soissonnais, Fismes is still worth a stop.

“The climate is oceanic: for 1971 to 2000 the mean annual temperature is 10.4 °C and rainfall is about 695 millimetres.

History

The name goes back to the Latin Ad Fines, "at the border". Even in Gallo-Roman times the territories of the Suessiones and the Remi met here. Normans and Hungarians destroyed the settlement, after which it moved to the heights on the left bank of the Vesle. In 1226 Count Theobald IV of Champagne granted Fismes the rights of a free town, which gave a boost to crafts, trade and markets.

For a good number of French kings, from Louis XIII to Charles X, Fismes was the last stop before Reims, where the anointing took place. In the 19th century sugar factories, foundries, tanneries and the railway shaped the town. In the First World War Fismes was almost completely destroyed in May 1918, and was rebuilt afterwards.

Chateau de Bligny Champagner

Sights

• Church of Sainte-Macre: It dates from the 12th century and was extended in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. It has been protected as a Monument historique since 1919.
• Town hall: It was rebuilt in 1927, modelled on the neo-Renaissance building erected in 1912 and destroyed in the war.
• Pont mémorial: The bridge over the Vesle commemorates the US 28th Division. It was donated by the state of Pennsylvania and completed in 1928.

Today Fismes has 5,850 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2023). If you are driving from Reims towards Soissons, you will find a quiet town with an eventful past here, before the road heads back into the vineyards.