Saint-Brice-Courcelles

Location

Saint-Brice-Courcelles is part of the Reims conurbation and lies on its north-western edge in the Marne département. The commune is small, at a little over 4 square kilometres, and flat: elevations range from 71 to 88 metres. The Vesle runs along the west side and the Canal de l'Aisne à la Marne along the east. Its neighbours include Tinqueux, Champigny, Merfy, Saint-Thierry and, of course, Reims itself. The A4 and A26 motorways both cross the commune, which makes the place interesting from a transport point of view.

Not a wine village, but part of the Champagne region

Worth knowing before you go looking for vineyards here: Saint-Brice-Courcelles is neither a grand cru nor a premier cru, and the sources make no mention of any vineyard area. Instead, business, industry and a large shopping zone shape the picture. Around 46 per cent of the land is taken up by industry, retail and transport routes, and in total about 70 per cent is sealed or built over. The rest is woodland (just over 16 per cent) and a little farmland. For visitors to champagne country, the village is therefore interesting mainly as a place to run errands and as a starting point for trips into the nearby Montagne de Reims.

“The Château de Courcelles and its park were extensively restored in 1920 and have been a listed monument since 1999.

Water and greenery

The Vesle has shaped the commune for centuries. It supplied water for market gardening and for the textile works, and it drove mills, among them the Moulin de l'Archevêque. Marshes and ponds survive to this day, and the tradition of growing vegetables lives on in the family allotments, with more than 400 plots in Courcelles alone. The canal has been in operation since 1866 and links Reims with the Marne.

• The towpath along the canal has been developed as a coulée verte (green way) over about twelve kilometres between Reims and Berry-au-Bac and is waymarked as the GR 654.
• The path along the Vesle is planned to run for almost 30 kilometres as far as Fismes. It starts in Saint-Brice-Courcelles at a footbridge dating from 2011.

History and sights

During the Revolution the commune was briefly known as Liberté-sur-Vesle and Montriqueux. The Château de Courcelles and its park were extensively restored in 1920 and have been a listed monument since 1999. Of the Château de Malle, by contrast, little survived after a fire in 1975. The painter Jules Martelet, who took part in the Paris Commune, came from the village. It is twinned with Robertsbridge in East Sussex.

Saint-Brice-Courcelles has 3,566 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2023). If you are exploring Champagne from Reims, you will not find a winegrowers' village here, but you will find green river scenery and a château that is worth a short detour.