Matougues

Matougues is not one of the places you would deliberately head for on a champagne trip. There is no Grand Cru or Premier Cru here, and my source names neither growers nor vineyard areas. Even so, this commune in the Marne département is worth a look if you want a complete picture of the region, because it shows how varied the landscape around Châlons-en-Champagne is.

Location

Matougues lies on the Marne, about ten kilometres north-west of Châlons-en-Champagne. The commune covers 13.71 square kilometres and had exactly 636 inhabitants in 2023. Its neighbours include Juvigny, Recy, Saint-Gibrien, Villers-le-Château, Saint-Pierre, Champigneul-Champagne and Aulnay-sur-Marne. Administratively, Matougues belongs to the Cités-en-Champagne agglomeration and lies within the catchment area of Châlons.

Landscape and climate

Land use explains why no wine village grew up here: in 2018, 92.4 per cent of the commune's area was farmland, of which 81.9 per cent was arable. Woodland barely features at 0.1 per cent. The climate is oceanic. For 1971 to 2000 the source gives an average annual temperature of 10.2 °C and around 681 millimetres of rainfall. The nearest weather station, in Fagnières, recorded its highest reading on 25 July 2019 at 41.8 °C, while in January 1985 the thermometer there fell to minus 21 °C. The growers of the region know such extremes only too well.

“The commune covers 13.71 square kilometres and had exactly 636 inhabitants in 2023.

History and sights

The village first appears around 948 as "vicus Matusgus". Over the centuries the name shifted through forms such as Matosga, Matouga and Mathogue to the present-day Matougues. If you pass through, the places worth a stop are modest:

• the church of Saint-Georges
• the former station building on the Paris-Est–Strasbourg line, now a private home, as no trains stop there any more
• the mural on the water tower, showing the Marne bridge and the village church, painted by Roland Irolla, who lived in the village from 1971 to 2008

Economy and refreshment

Economically, Matougues is known above all for one factory: in 2001 McCain opened a plant here for frozen chips, which according to the source ranks among the most productive in the world. It turns out 25 tonnes an hour and employed around 230 people in 2015. It makes an unusual contrast to the Champagne of prestige houses and chalk cellars.

For travellers there is the Auberge des moissons, which offers charging points for Tesla cars. If you are heading from Châlons to the wine villages of the Marne, it makes a practical place to pause. But you are better off filling your champagne glass in the growers' villages to the south and east of the region.