Saint-Memmie

Location

Saint-Memmie lies in the Marne département and forms part of the Châlons-en-Champagne conurbation. The commune is a suburb to the south-east of the city, which wraps around it to the south-west, west and north. Its other neighbours are L'Épine, Courtisols and Sarry. The Route nationale 44 runs through the village, and the Mau stream flows through it. In 2023 the commune had 5,441 inhabitants, who are known as Mengeots.

Saint-Memmie is not a wine village. It is classified neither as grand cru nor as premier cru. Land use is mainly arable: according to 2018 figures, just under 78 per cent of the area is farmland and a good 12 per cent is built up. The climate is oceanic. For 1971 to 2000 the source gives an average annual temperature of 10.4 °C and around 657 mm of rainfall.

History

The name goes back to Memmius, also known in French as Menge, the first bishop of Châlons. He lived in the third century and is buried in the village church. The area, however, was settled much earlier: around 1900, more than a hundred graves were excavated at the Chemin des Dats, close to the border with L'Épine, along with traces of dwellings and storage pits. The finds date from the 5th century BC. During the French Revolution the commune was briefly called Brutus.

“In 2023 the commune had 5,441 inhabitants, who are known as Mengeots.Saint-Memmie is not a wine village.

Sights

The centre of the village is the church of Saint-Memmie, built in the last third of the 19th century. It holds the tomb of the city's patron saint and several other features of interest:

• 19th-century stained glass by the Reims glass painters Vermonet-Pommery and Marquant-Vogel
• a gallery organ by Jean Blési dating from 1887
• gravestones from the 12th and 13th centuries

The town hall is a former seminary. Its large chapel now serves as a cultural venue and houses gravestones from the chapel of the Hôtel-Dieu of Châlons. In the old village centre you can still find houses in the traditional Champagne style of building, made of chalk and timber framing filled with clay. Le Fontenay is a building from the 1820s. The German Wikipedia names one further attraction, the hypogeum of Saint-Memmie.

For wine lovers

The sources name no champagne houses or growers in Saint-Memmie. The village is therefore better suited as a quiet stop during a visit to Châlons-en-Champagne, with a look at the church and town hall. If you want to taste champagne, the region's major wine-growing areas are within easy reach. The village is twinned with Chiesina Uzzanese in Tuscany.