9 Surprising Issues to do in Haute-Marne

If I name this stuff to do within the Haute-Marne “surprising”, it’s as a result of I had no preconceived concepts in any way earlier than visiting this lesser identified French département, quantity 52.

And if I had been to be absolutely trustworthy, I’d fess as much as not even understanding precisely the place the Haute-Marne was (someplace within the northeast!) till I appeared it up on a map. And that’s the fantastic thing about it: as a result of many overseas guests have by no means heard of it, most of the crowds will probably be blissfully absent. It does have a couple of main sights, as you may see under, however components of this division are prepared in your discovery.

To pinpoint the Haute-Marne’s whereabouts, it lies to the east of Paris and to the north of Dijon. The truth is, it’s proper on the sting of the area that produces Champagne: it produces a modest quantity of Champagne itself, therefore its nickname, the “different Champagne”.

Within the spirit of at all times searching for the “offbeat” in France, it doesn’t get way more offbeat than this. 

A part of the fantastic thing about France is its whimsy and variety, its potential to shock us with the surprising.

Like these 9 issues.

1. Pay your respects to Basic Charles de Gaulle 

In case you ask somebody to call France’s best leaders (or its most well-known ones), that record will most likely embrace Louis XIV, Napoleon, and… Charles de Gaulle, who led the French to freedom throughout World Struggle II.

He moved round lots all through his life − he was, in spite of everything, a army man. However in 1934 he purchased La Boisserie, a modest nation house in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, a typical village within the Haute-Marne. It had no working water and little electrical energy on the time, however was precisely what he was in search of: a quiet household refuge the place his youngsters − particularly Anne, who had Down’s Syndrome − may flourish.

He might have moved typically, however he at all times returned right here, as typically as each different weekend, to benefit from the countryside and take lengthy forest walks that may feed his creativity.

Why Colombey? Most likely as a result of it was about midway between Paris and Strasbourg, close to the German border, the place senior army officers may anticipate to be stationed. 

Whereas de Gaulle lived right here, he was a part of village life, attending church on Sundays and showing at native celebrations. Regardless of his fame, a mutual respect allowed him to dwell his life calmly and discreetly.

Basic de Gaulle and his spouse lived a modest life in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises. After they had been in residence, they might attend Mass on Sundays and sit in their very own pew – it got here with the home.

Earlier than he died, he wrote a will which included a request to be buried within the native village cemetery, modestly and with out fanfare, alongside together with his daughter Anne, who had Down’s syndrome and died prematurely at 20. 

Anne de Gaulle is buried within the left-hand facet of the grave, whereas the Basic and his spouse are buried on the appropriate

Upon his dying, an enormous Cross of Lorraine was constructed close by, 44m excessive. 

High: the Lorraine Cross on the de Gaulle Memorial; backside: the higher entrance to the museum

Under the Lorraine Cross is a museum devoted to Basic de Gaulle, which traces his complete life and whereas it after all recounts his political trajectory, it doesn’t neglect the person himself. Every thing from posters to movies to artefacts courting from his time as a army man are displayed in an space so huge you’ll want at the least two hours to see all of it.

2. Eat on the earth’s most cost-effective Michelin-starred restaurant

These of us who establish as foodies know simply how costly a meal in a Michelin-starred restaurant can value, and consuming in a single isn’t an on a regular basis expertise.

However I do know of at the least one for which you gained’t must take out a second mortgage: as quickly as you’ve completed visiting La Boisserie, stroll into the middle of Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises in direction of the Hostellerie la Montagne and its restaurant, Chez Natali.

Chez Natali was named the world’s least costly Michelin restaurant in 2021, and a look at their menu will verify the nomination. A each day particular, all three programs, for what you’d pay in any first rate restaurant in France, with out star.

Chef Jean-Baptiste obtained his Michelin star in 2002, the youngest chef to ever obtain this, so loads of superlatives for this pretty set of three restaurant rooms within the shadow of de Gaulle’s Memorial.

That roast pumpkin soup is probably the perfect I’ve eaten; on the left, a fancy and gorgeous pear-shaped invention

3. Style a “perfumed” Langres cheese

It is probably not on the menu at Chez Natali, however don’t let that cease you from tasting top-of-the-line native cheeses when you’re within the Haute-Marne.

It’s referred to as Langres, like town from which it comes, and locals inform me their cheese is “near Epoisses”. In case you’ve ever tasted Epoisses, you’ll realize it belongs within the class of “pungent cheese it’s best to by no means carry in your automotive”.

Attribute creamy cheese from Langres. Picture Angélique Roze

Having tasted Langres cheese a number of occasions, I don’t assume it’s something like Epoisses. It’s far creamier, and whereas perfumed, I’d not take into account it pungent. In case you’ve conversant in Brillat-Savarin, you would possibly discern a similarity of their aroma and texture (though many will disagree with me).

However then, who is aware of whether or not my style and odor have absolutely recovered from my brush with Covid a couple of months in the past…

4. Discover Langres, one among France’s 50 prettiest cities 

Langres was constructed for protection, and its spectacular ramparts stay intact, ringing the city, unbroken. 

On weekends, complete households use them to walk or cycle, and the views in each course are gigantic and gorgeous. As I walked alongside them, I ran into youngsters working − their health club class used it as a race observe as a result of colleges inside the partitions, predictably, are restricted by area.

Langres was threatened a number of occasions in its historical past, however it was by no means attacked, burned, or pillaged. There are tales of armies approaching, for instance in the course of the Franco-Prussian Struggle, wanting on the 400 meters uphill, and properly deciding to retreat. For hundreds of years, when wars had been fought solely on the bottom, Langres remained impregnable.

Two totally different views of Langres, the ramparts and the Tour de Navarre. Pictures Angélique Roze

What’s inside town hasn’t modified a lot. Its 3 km of partitions date again anyplace between the third and the thirteenth centuries. Its ramparts are protected as nationwide monuments, and there are many restrictions to constructing and encroachment, guaranteeing the city will retain its part-medieval really feel.

5. Sleep within the oldest lodge in France

Having explored Langres on foot (or by bike), you’ll must relaxation. How about spending the night time in France’s oldest lodge?

There’s documented proof that this was a lodge way back to 1588, though it’s identify developed through the years − Resort du Loup (Wolf Resort), Resort de Bourgogne (Burgundy), Resort de la Poste et aux Chevaux (Publish and Horse) and, lastly in 1872, the identify it carries right this moment, Resort de la Poste.

I had hoped there wouldn’t be an excessive amount of renovation, and I wasn’t dissatisfied. Clearly issues modified over half a millennium, however not that a lot. The rooms had all of the conveniences, but gave off an aura of historical past within the room, up and down the wooden stairs, and alongside the ground tiles and wall fittings.

The rear of the lodge after all has been remodeled. Today, a parking zone and pool stand the place stables as soon as housed horses alongside France’s early postal routes, however regardless of: the façade of the lodge is just about what it was, minus electrical energy, and the soul of that early hospitality stays.

Why not ebook your personal night time steeped in historical past on the Resort de la Poste?

6. Examine the Age of Enlightenment with Diderot

If Langres has a patron mental determine, that may be Denis Diderot, luminary of the Age of Enlightenment and co-editor (with Jean le Rond d’Alembert) of the “Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts”. Not fairly the snappy title, however then, its mission was something however modest: to collect all of the data in existence on the time, to tell current and future generations.

Diderot’s concept was to democratize data so that every one courses would have entry to it. The unique 17 volumes included texts by greater than 200 writers, all of them males, except one (nameless) contribution by a girl.

You possibly can see (however not contact) an unique of the Encyclopedia on the Maison des Lumières in Langres, the world’s solely museum devoted to Diderot, who was born in Langres and lived right here till the age of 15, returning typically all through his life.

Diderot was well-known for greater than the Encyclopedia, nonetheless, and would even be remembered for his opposition to a lot of society’s accepted beliefs, from faith to the monarchy, beliefs that may typically get him into bother. 

Like most college students within the French college system, I studied Diderot, however the years have frittered away my data. To mud off your personal recollections, I counsel you learn the superb biography entitled Diderot and the Artwork of Considering Freely, which superbly particulars this sensible personage.

The Maison des Lumières is housed in a beautiful manor home constructed between the sixteenth and 18th centuries and covers not solely Diderot, however his relationship to the Enlightenment, and all its advances − each identified hen, for instance, or instruments just like the sextant or a mechanical photo voltaic system in use in these days.

Diderot can also be honored by a statue within the middle of Langres designed by none aside from Bartholdi, of Statue of Liberty fame.

7. Uncover Nogent’s pre-industrial previous

Town of Langres was one among France’s primary facilities of knife-making, and companies had been fashioned to guard the commerce from outdoors competitors. By the 18th century, there have been some 30 grasp cutlers within the city, specializing in luxurious knives.

However then a collection of legal guidelines eradicated companies and the commerce started to wane. Mixed with extreme taxes, an absence of water, and an ecclesiastic edict banning noise from the forges inside the city partitions, the craftsmen started leaving Langres.

Making knives was a sophisticated course of and to recreate this machine, historians copied it from Diderot’s Encyclopedia

The museum accommodates greater than cutlery – like these finely carved scissor handles

Nogent, about 25 minutes away, had every part Langres didn’t: a gas supply (forests), a river, and a welcoming atmosphere. By the nineteenth century, some 6000 people labored in Nogent making knives. Many labored from house, and supplemented their earnings by farming.

As for Langres, it didn’t discard its knife trade − it merely shifted from manufacturing them to reselling.

Lots of the knives from Nogent had been bought to pick out Parisian homes who insisted on stamping their very own identify on them, including “within the type of Nogent”. This lowered Nogent’s  status, in a means usurping the data and ability and repackaging it, a lot as white labeling is finished right this moment. It could take till the Common Expositions of 1889 and 1900 for Nogent’s work to be formally acknowledged.

As we speak, machines and mechanization play a big function in making knives, however a lot of the craft and artistry is displayed within the Museum of Cutlery (web site in French), proper subsequent to the city corridor, stuffed with fascinating examples of knives, scissors, and all sorts of chopping objects made all through historical past, some so artfully that they appear extra like lace than instruments.

8. Go to Voltaire’s not-so-hidden love nest

Typically a hidden love nest isn’t fairly hidden: Voltaire didn’t attempt to cover his affair with mathematician and thinker Emilie de Châtelet, nor did he should. He fell in love, moved in, and befriended Emilie’s husband, then a army man stationed in Semur-en-Auxois, additional south in Burgundy. Emilie’s husband knew concerning the affair however didn’t appear to thoughts, even permitting Voltaire to enlarge and embellish his château.

A white iron gate results in the Château de Cirey from the middle of the village of Cirey-sur-Blaise, 80 km north of Langres and quarter-hour from de Gaulle’s house.

That is the entrance of the château if I keep in mind appropriately!Picture by Aetius520, CC BY-SA 3.0, by way of Wikimedia Commons

Voltaire hadn’t precisely deliberate to dwell right here however, ever the insurgent, he was about to be arrested when he bumped into Emilie at a marriage, informed her his unhappy story, and promptly accepted her hospitality.

However let’s backtrack, as a result of there are a number of attention-grabbing strands to this story: Voltaire after all, Emilie, and the château itself.

Voltaire, as we all know, was a thinker and creator of the Age of Enlightenment, however his political positions typically positioned him on the “flawed” facet of officialdom. He can be imprisoned, exiled, and change into an Anglophile after spending a while in England.

His 15-year affair with Emilie de Châtelet was probably the best love (and mental) match of the 18th century. An excellent polyglot, Emilie grew up with dad and mom who acknowledged her intelligence and need for studying and, uncommon in these years for a lady, inspired it and made certain she had the perfect schooling attainable.

Maybe she is greatest identified for her translation of Newton’s Principia Matematica, which she not solely translated however annotated, explaining its complexities in a much less arduous trend.

The majestic staircase of the Château de Cirey

As for the château, it was by no means accomplished. An illustration held within the Maison des Lumières in Langres exhibits the château in its remaining, aspirational model. The house owners’ son took it over upon their dying, however was guillotined in the course of the French Revolution, and the fort was pillaged, each final merchandise ripped from its settings − locks, beams, furnishings. Many of the furnishings had been added as soon as issues calmed down.

As we speak’s proprietor inherited Cirey from her great-great-grandfather, an industrialist from japanese France who purchased it and started fixing it up. It might formally be a historic monument, however to the household who lives right here, it’s house.

The château is open to guests in the course of the summer time so in case you’re coming this manner, write to them and reserve as a result of you may solely go to with a information.

9. Uncover the foundry artwork of Hector Guimard

Regardless of its tradition and the fantastic thing about its light countryside, the Haute-Marne has a strong industrial historical past, one during which native foundries blossomed into artwork.

Not solely is the area the bedrock of France’s metallurgical sector, however the improvement of artwork foundry gave the trade a unique sheen.

All these fantastic forged iron subway entrances in Paris? They had been made by Hector Guimard, a designer and architect who used the foundries of the Haute-Marne to forged his works, floating them down the Marne Canal in direction of both the Seine or the Rhine.

Aside from the Paris métro, some fantastic examples of Guimard’s work might be seen in two unlikely locations.

Guimard’s work as exhibited at Metallurgic Park

Wallace Fountain exhibited at Metallurgic Park

The primary is Metallurgic Park, a former iron foundry which is now an exhibition area devoted to displaying how iron ore is melted into ingots after which melted once more for use for buildings or artwork.

It is just open in summer time however in case you’re driving via this area, do cease by to see if it’s open: in an annex to the principle exhibit, you’ll discover items of artwork foundry. Guimard, after all, but in addition a couple of different items − a Wallace fountain, for instance. (Right here’s their Fb web page.)

A part of the Guimard assortment in Saint-Dizier

The second location for Guimard’s work is sort of as unlikely: the small, industrial city of Saint-Dizier, about an hour’s drive from Langres. In a facet road close to the prefecture is a modest, eclectic museum which − lodged between its ornithology and paleohistory sections − homes a complete room devoted to Guimard, the world’s second-largest assortment (the most important is in Houston, Texas).

There’s one other place to see Guimard’s work in Saint-Dizier: on the road. You need to look exhausting, however right here and there, you’ll discover window and balcony railings so attribute of Artwork Nouveau. In case you peer rigorously, you’ll even have the ability to spy a complete constructing or two both by Guimard or very a lot in his type.

The fantastic thing about the Haute-Marne, and of different less-visited departments, is that they have an inclination to cover deep strains of tradition that in better-known locations have been “sanitized” to make them engaging to the best variety of vacationers.

Right here, the “fame” − whether or not of Voltaire or Diderot or de Gaulle − stays genuine and accessible, way more about them than about us.

So sure, all this was surprising, and in as of late of mass journey, I appreciated the surprises.

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