Saint-Euphraise-et-Clairizet

Location

Saint-Euphraise-et-Clairizet lies in the Marne département, west-south-west of Reims, within the Montagne de Reims regional nature park. The village is made up of two hamlets: Saint-Euphraise to the west and Clairizet to the east. Both sit in the valley of the Noron, a small watercourse whose several arms and streams run through the commune. The parish covers 491 hectares and rises from 114 to 235 metres above sea level.

Neighbouring communes include Méry-Prémecy, Coulommes-la-Montagne, Pargny-lès-Reims, Bouilly, Bligny and Aubilly. With 244 inhabitants (2023) the village is very small and counts as a rural commune with scattered housing. At the same time, it lies within the catchment area of Reims.

Landscape and viticulture

Saint-Euphraise-et-Clairizet has neither Grand Cru nor Premier Cru status. Anyone passing through sees Champagne away from the big names. Land use makes this clear: in 2018 around 62 per cent of the area was arable land and just under 19 per cent woodland. Permanent crops, which usually include vineyards, made up a good 8 per cent.

“With 244 inhabitants (2023) the village is very small and counts as a rural commune with scattered housing.

The Montagne de Reims as a whole is known for its Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier wines, which give many cuvées their structure and fullness. The climate helps: it is temperate oceanic with fresh summers. The weather station at Chambrecy, six kilometres away, recorded an average of 10.7 °C and around 734 millimetres of rainfall a year for 1991 to 2020. The extremes ranged from minus 22.1 °C in January 1985 to 40.3 °C in July 2019.

Name and history

The name Saint-Euphraise probably refers to Euphrasia of Clermont. Clairizet is a diminutive of Clairy and points to an older settlement. The place is already documented as Claricellum around 850.

Arcy-Sainte-Restitue in der ChampagneFoto: Roland45, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The area played a particular role in the First World War. In 1917 a field hospital was set up between Aubilly and Saint-Euphraise, on the edge of the Bois de Béneuil, and served as a school of military medicine and surgery. It became a respected training centre for doctors and surgeons. It took its name, Bouleuse, from the nearby railway junction, through which transports arrived from Fismes, Reims and Dormans or Épernay.

Sights

• The church of Saint-Sylvestre: the original 13th-century building had to be rebuilt in 1926 to plans by the architect Georges Beaumet.
• The Noron valley and the forests of the Montagne de Reims, which are ideal for walks and cycle rides.

For wine lovers the village is worth visiting above all as a quiet base. Reims and the grower villages of the Montagne de Reims are close by, and anyone who takes the time will find the unhurried side of Champagne here.