Luxémont-et-Villotte

Location

Luxémont-et-Villotte lies in the south-east of the Marne département in the Grand Est region and belongs to the farming landscape of the Perthois. The commune covers 919 hectares and sits at an altitude of just 103 to 123 metres. The main village is Luxémont, in the middle of the commune. Added to it are the hamlets of Villotte in the north-east and Le Pommerot in the north-west, close to Marolles.

The nearest sizeable town is Vitry-le-François, only 6 kilometres away. It is 39 kilometres by road to Châlons-en-Champagne, the prefecture of the département, and 26 kilometres to Saint-Dizier. The Route nationale 4 runs to the north-west. Since 2015 the village has belonged to the canton of Sermaize-les-Bains.

Water and landscape

Two waterways shape the place: the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne, officially the Canal de la Marne à la Saône, and the river Orconte, which runs parallel to it. The canal is 160 kilometres long and links the valleys of the Marne and the Saône. The Orconte rises at Trois-Fontaines-l'Abbaye and joins the Marne at Frignicourt after 31 kilometres. Two small lakes complete the picture: the Lac du Tard and a gravel pit filled with water.

“Today the village has 448 inhabitants (as of 2023) and is rural, with scattered buildings.

The south of the commune, around the Orconte and the canal, is wooded. Overall, though, farming dominates: around 71 per cent of the land is agricultural, mostly arable fields (63 per cent). Woodland makes up about 19 per cent. The climate is oceanic. At the nearby Frignicourt weather station, the annual mean from 1991 to 2020 was 11.5 °C, with rainfall of around 695 millimetres.

What it means for champagne lovers

Luxémont-et-Villotte is neither grand cru nor premier cru. Vines play no recorded part in the village's land use: what grows here is cereals and field crops. The famous sites of Champagne, on the Montagne de Reims, in the Vallée de la Marne or on the Côte des Blancs, lie elsewhere. Visitors are most likely to use the area as a quiet stop by the water, perhaps on a drive along the canal or on the way to Vitry-le-François.

INAO

History and sights

The commune in its present form has existed since 1824, when the previously independent communes of Villotte and Luxémont were merged. Today the village has 448 inhabitants (as of 2023) and is rural, with scattered buildings. Administratively, it has belonged to the Communauté de communes Perthois-Bocage et Der since 2014.

Two churches are worth mentioning:

• Saint-Étienne in Luxémont: destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1892
• Saint-Nicolas in Villotte

If you are travelling in the region anyway, both village churches and the towpath along the canal combine well with a visit to the wine villages further north.