- Département
- Marne
- Site
- Countryside around Vitry-le-François, on the Vière
- Inhabitants
- 176 (2023)
- Source
- Wikipedia, eigene Zusammenfassung
Vavray-le-Grand is a small village in the Marne département, in the countryside around Vitry-le-François. It is not a cru village: the place is shaped by farming and the little river Vière.
Location
Vavray-le-Grand is a village in the Marne département, in the Grand Est region. The commune covers 7.0 square kilometres and had exactly 176 inhabitants in 2023, around 9 per cent more than in 2017. It lies within the catchment area of Vitry-le-François and counts as a rural commune with scattered housing. Its neighbours include Heiltz-le-Maurupt, Pargny-sur-Saulx, Blesme and Brusson. The village is administered by the Côtes de Champagne et Val de Saulx community of communes.
A word for champagne travellers: Vavray-le-Grand is neither grand cru nor premier cru. Anyone who stops here does so not for great vineyard sites, but for a stretch of unassuming Marne countryside away from the well-known wine routes.
Landscape and water
The defining feature is the Vière, which rises near Noirlieu, is 42 kilometres long and flows through 13 communes before joining the Chée at Outrepont. Vavray-le-Grand has a hydrological monitoring station on the river. The mean monthly flow is 1.42 cubic metres per second. During the flood of 4 February 2020, the daily average rose to 30.8 and the peak to 33.4 cubic metres per second. The Flancon, 13 kilometres long, also flows into the Vière in the village.
The commune covers 7.0 square kilometres and had exactly 176 inhabitants in 2023, around 9 per cent more than in 2017.
The climate is temperate oceanic, with cool summers and cold winters. The nearest weather station, in Frignicourt, 14 kilometres away, recorded an average of 11.5 °C and 694.6 millimetres of rainfall a year for 1991 to 2020. It also measured 41.7 °C there on 25 July 2019.
Soil and land use
According to 2018 data, the commune's land is divided up as follows:
- Arable land: 53.8 per cent
- Woodland: 22 per cent
- Meadows and pasture: 14.4 per cent
- Permanent crops: 5.8 per cent
- Built-up area: 4 per cent
The statistics do not say which permanent crops these are. No significant viticulture is recorded for the village, which is why we do not profile any champagne houses here.
Name and sights
The village first appears in 1028 as Wavoreium. The name goes back to a Gaulish word for uncultivated, scrubby land and describes a damp, overgrown place. That fits its position between two watercourses rather well. During the French Revolution the commune was briefly called Vavrais.
The source lists the church of Saint-Sulpice, a mill and a former factory as places of interest. You should not plan for more than a short stop. But if you want to explore the Champagne region thoroughly, you can use the village as a quiet stopover and carry on from there towards Vitry-le-François.
Pictures
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