Somme-Suippe

If you only know champagne from the glass, you will look for Somme-Suippe in vain on the map of the great vineyard sites. The village is not classified as Grand Cru or Premier Cru, and vines do not appear anywhere in the commune's land use. Even so, it is worth a look: it tells you a lot about the landscape north-east of Châlons-en-Champagne.

Location

Somme-Suippe lies in the Marne département in the Grand Est region, about 33 kilometres north-east of the centre of Châlons-en-Champagne. The commune belongs to the arrondissement of Châlons and to the canton of Argonne Suippe et Vesle. Neighbouring villages include Suippes to the west and north-west and Souain-Perthes-lès-Hurlus to the north. Since 2014 the village has been part of the Communauté de communes de Suippe et Vesle.

With 513 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2023), Somme-Suippe is a rural village with scattered buildings. The population has grown by 8 per cent since 2017. Around 70 per cent of the commune's area is arable land, with the rest made up of scrub and grass, woodland and only a small share of built-up area.

The source of the Suippe

The name gives the game away. In local place-name lore, "somme" stands for a spring, so Somme-Suippe means "source of the Suippe". The word goes back to the Latin "summa", the highest point, because the spring sits at the upper end of the valley. And indeed, the Suippe rises in a small park near the church. The river is 82 kilometres long, passes through 27 communes and flows into the Aisne at Saint-Juvin.

“Over the 1971 to 2000 average, the annual temperature was 10.1 °C and rainfall 773 mm.

The climate is oceanic and temperate. Over the 1971 to 2000 average, the annual temperature was 10.1 °C and rainfall 773 mm. At the nearest weather station, in Mourmelon-le-Grand, 41.3 °C was recorded on 25 July 2019, and minus 19.7 °C on 7 February 2012.

Somme-Tourbe in der ChampagneFoto: Roland45, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

History

The village was probably founded before the Common Era, but it only becomes traceable in documents in the 11th century. In 1053 Guy de Châtillon, Archbishop of Reims, gave the parish to the abbess of Avenay. Later Somme-Suippe was granted something few villages enjoyed: by letters patent of Henry III it was allowed to protect itself with walls. They were pulled down in 1812. In the First World War there was a camp for German prisoners of war in the commune.

Sights

• Église Saint-Pierre: It stands on a small rise and dates in its core from the 13th century, to which the choir belongs. The transepts and west portal are from the 14th century, and the nave has four bays.
• French military cemetery: Laid out in 1914, it holds 4,950 fallen French soldiers. It lies on the edge of the village near the D 931.
• Source park of the Suippe: The river's source is right next to the church.

For champagne lovers, Somme-Suippe is mainly a stop on the way through, say between Châlons and the Ardennes. If you have time to spare, you will find a quiet place with a spring, a church and the memory of war.