Soudé

Soudé is not a place you will find on a champagne label. It is neither a grand cru nor a premier cru, and the sources available to us mention neither vineyards nor a champagne house. Even so, the village is worth a look, because it shows the other side of the region: the wide, farming hinterland away from the famous vine-covered slopes.

Location

Soudé lies in the Marne département, in the middle of the Champagne Pouilleuse (the "dry" or chalky Champagne), on the border with the Aube département. It is around 28 kilometres north to Châlons-en-Champagne, and the commune belongs to its catchment area. In the south of the commune begins the Camp de Suippes, a military training ground that is closed to the public as a restricted zone. With 149 inhabitants (2023) and an area of 32.29 square kilometres, settlement is very sparse, and the houses are spread across several hamlets.

Landscape and climate

Just over 91 per cent of the land is farmland, almost entirely arable fields. Woodland accounts for about 1 per cent, and built-up land for just under 2 per cent. The great champagne vineyards lie elsewhere, on the Montagne de Reims, in the Vallée de la Marne or on the Côte des Blancs.

“By prefectural decree of 18 January 1965, Soudé-Sainte-Croix absorbed its neighbour and has been called simply Soudé ever since.

The climate is oceanic in character, but without much sun. Some figures from the source:

• Mean annual temperature 1971 to 2000: 10.5 °C
• Annual rainfall: around 789 millimetres
• Sommesous station, 8 kilometres away, 1991 to 2020: 10.8 °C and 816.9 millimetres
• Extremes recorded there: 42.2 °C on 25 July 2019, minus 26.5 °C on 14 February 1956

The River Soude also rises in Soudé. It is 23 kilometres long and flows into the Somme-Soude at Villeseneux.

History and name

The present commune was created in 1965 by the merger of Soudé-Notre-Dame, the "little" Soudé, and Soudé-Sainte-Croix, the "big" Soudé. By prefectural decree of 18 January 1965, Soudé-Sainte-Croix absorbed its neighbour and has been called simply Soudé ever since. The two villages already appear in documents in 1187 as Souldeyum and in 1188 as Soldeum minor. The place name has the same origin as the river. During the Revolution both villages briefly bore the names "le Petit" and "le Grand".

Bauget-Jouette Champagner

Things to see

You can still recognise the village's two-part history in its two churches:

• the church of Saint-Quentin in the former village of Soudé-Sainte-Croix
• the church of Notre-Dame in the former village of Soudé-Notre-Dame
• a military cemetery
• two water towers

If you are travelling through Champagne, Soudé makes a quiet stop on the way across the flat country south of Châlons. For a tasting, the road then leads back to the wine villages further north, or south in the Aube.