Sermaize-les-Bains

Location

Sermaize-les-Bains lies in the south-east of the Marne département, right on the border with the Meuse. The village belongs to the Perthois landscape and covers 1,769 hectares. The terrain rises from 119 to 192 metres, and the south is mostly wooded. The Saulx flows to the north and its tributary, the Laume, to the east. The Canal de la Marne au Rhin, which links Vitry-le-François with Strasbourg, runs parallel to the Saulx.

By road it is 27 kilometres to Vitry-le-François, 22 kilometres to Bar-le-Duc and 20 kilometres to Saint-Dizier. The prefecture, Châlons-en-Champagne, is 57 kilometres away. According to the source, the commune has 1,742 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2023).

Landscape and champagne

Sermaize-les-Bains is neither grand cru nor premier cru, and it is not a centre of winegrowing. The source describes a heavily wooded area: around 51 per cent of the land is forest and just under 20 per cent is arable, with meadows and mixed farmland making up the rest. No vineyards or champagne houses are mentioned. If you want to get to know the Champagne region in its rural variety, this is an area away from the famous vineyard sites, and it belongs to the Marne département.

“In the First World War it was almost completely destroyed in the bombardment of 6 September 1914.

History

The name of the place is recorded from 1093, then as Sermasia, in connection with the building of the church. The commune was later called Sermaize-sur-Saulx. Decrees of 1896 and 1897 turned it into Sermaize-les-Bains, because the village's thermal spa was flourishing.

The village saw the fighting between Napoleon and Blücher, as well as the passage of the Prussians in 1870. In the First World War it was almost completely destroyed in the bombardment of 6 September 1914. Only the fountain in front of the town hall and the railway station remained standing. That is why the commune has the phoenix as its emblem. The parents of Joan of Arc are also said to have married here. On 29 August 1944, German soldiers killed about ten passers-by in the village, and a memorial commemorates them.

Henri Blin Champagner

In the 19th century Sermaize-les-Bains had an art foundry, Denonvilliers Fils et Cie. Among other things, sculptures by Aimé Millet were cast there.

Sights

• The church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativité, the former Benedictine priory of 1094
• The fountain in front of the town hall, one of the few structures that survived 1914
• The Canal de la Marne au Rhin and the Saulx for walks by the water

For food and wine lovers, Sermaize-les-Bains is a stopover on a route through the south-east of the Marne, a place with an eventful history but no champagne tradition of its own.