The Marne is the quintessential Champagne department, home to this world-famous wine appellation whose vineyards cover the slopes of the Montagne de Reims, the Marne Valley and the Côte des Blancs. Reims, its historic capital, is the city of coronations: twenty-six kings of France were crowned there in its Gothic cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside the Abbey of Saint-Remi and the Palais du Tau.
The Marne region’s castle heritage is closely linked to the history of the Counts of Champagne, who made their court one of the most brilliant in medieval Europe and whose Champagne fairs attracted merchants from across the continent. Épernay, the world capital of champagne with its Avenue de Champagne lined with the most illustrious houses — Moët & Chandon, Perrier-Jouët, Pol Roger —, boasts remarkable champagne cellars stretching 110 kilometres beneath the town.
Châlons-en-Champagne, the former capital of Champagne, and the chalky plains of the Champagne region serve as a reminder that the Marne was also the battlefield of two world wars that devastated a region which took decades to recover from the ruins.