- Département
- Marne (Grand Est region)
- Site
- 24 km east-north-east of Châlons-en-Champagne, on the upper reaches of the Auve
- Inhabitants
- 63 (as of 2023)
- Source
- Wikipedia, eigene Zusammenfassung
Saint-Mard-sur-Auve is a tiny village in the Marne département, east of Châlons-en-Champagne. It has no cru status and is shaped by arable farming and the little River Auve.
Saint-Mard-sur-Auve is not a name you will find on a champagne label. The village has neither grand cru nor premier cru status, and the sources I have consulted list no growers or champagne houses here. Even so, anyone who wants to understand Champagne in its full breadth will find a piece of rural backdrop here: a very small village in the Marne département, away from the famous vineyard sites.
Location
The commune lies roughly 24 kilometres east-north-east of Châlons-en-Champagne, on the upper reaches of the Auve. Administratively it belongs to the arrondissement of Châlons-en-Champagne and the canton of Argonne Suippe et Vesle. Since 2014 it has been a member of the Communauté de communes de l'Argonne Champenoise. With 63 inhabitants (as of 2023), Saint-Mard-sur-Auve is one of the smallest communes in the region. The population is about 1.6 per cent lower than in 2017.
Landscape and climate
The commune's land is used entirely for agriculture. Just over 95 per cent is arable land, the rest is mixed farmland. The source records no vineyard area. The area is drained by the Auve, the Grand Chignon and the Ruisseau de Presle. The Auve is 20 kilometres long, rises in the commune of Auve and flows into the Aisne near Sainte-Menehould. A small pond, the Étang du Moulin, measures 3.8 hectares.
Since 2014 it has been a member of the Communauté de communes de l'Argonne Champenoise.
The climate is temperate with fresh summers. The nearest Météo-France weather station, in Argers ten kilometres away, records an average of 10.9 °C and 739 millimetres of rainfall a year for 1991 to 2020. The extremes: 41.1 °C on 25 July 2019 and minus 17.5 °C on 20 December 2009.
Name and history
The village name refers to Médard of Noyon, the saint to whom the village church is also dedicated. As early as 1181 the place appears as Sanctus Medardus juxta Alvam. Over the centuries the spelling changed several times, from Saint-Maart to Saint-Marc and Saint-Mars-sur-Aulve. During the French Revolution the commune was briefly called Montagne-sur-Auve and later Montauve.
For visitors
As a destination for food and wine lovers, Saint-Mard-sur-Auve is more of a stopover. The source names the church of Saint-Médard as its sight. For a visit, these are the points worth knowing:
- the church of Saint Médard in the village centre
- the course of the Auve, which you can follow downstream as far as Sainte-Menehould
- Châlons-en-Champagne as the nearest larger town, about 24 kilometres away
The champagne houses and grower villages for which the region is famous lie elsewhere. This village, by contrast, shows the quiet, agricultural side of the Marne.
Pictures
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