Rheims and the Battles for its Possession

by Pneu Michelin

After visiting the church, return to the Rue Thiers, at the end of which is the Rue de Mailly (G.C. 26).

Take the latter, which, on leaving Verzenay, rises fairly stiffly.

At the top of the hill, on the right, begins the road leading to Verzenay Mill, which crowns Hill 227 (see Itinerary, p. [166], and photo above).

This mill, whence there is a fine panorama of the plain as far as the hills of Berru and Moronvilliers, was a military observation-post of the first order during the siege warfare.

It belongs to the champagne-wine firm of Heidsieck Monopole, which allows tourists to visit it, as also their vineyards in the surrounding country.

The road dips down to Mailly-Champagne, at the entrance to which village turn to the right into the Rue Gambetta, then to the left into the Rue de Ludes (G.C. 26). The road, cut out of the hillside, is very picturesque as far as Ludes. In the forest, on the left of the road, are numerous "cendrières," or quarries, from which volcanic sulphurous cinders, used for improving the vines, are extracted. Heaps of these valuable cinders (grey, white and black) are frequently encountered at the side of the road.

Ludes is next reached by the Avenue de la Gare.

The region just passed through, including the villages of Verzenay, Mailly-Champagne and Ludes, as well as Verzy (to the east), and Rilly-la-Montagne and Villers-Allerand (to the west), are the wine-growing centres of the "Mountain of Rheims" properly so-called, the black grapes from which produce the best brands of Champagne. The villages are picturesquely situated at the edge of the forests which crown the hills, while the vineyards which cover the slopes of the latter descend to the chalky plain. These vineyards, divided into tiny plots, the ground of which before the ravages of the phylloxera cost as much as 93,000 francs per hectare (about 2-1/2 acres), constitute the principal wealth of the country. Here and there they have suffered from the war, but this has not prevented the vine-dressers from cultivating them (often with the help of the soldiers) or from gathering the grapes, under the continual menace of the German guns.