The Rue Chanzy ends on the bank of the Aisne at the Place d’Austerlitz. At the sharp turning on the left, before crossing this “place,” take the Rue de la Côte-du-Château, then the Rue des Ormes, which leads to the church.[2]
[2] The church is reached by a flight of steps; the entrance is close to No. 72, Rue Chanzy.
The church, surrounded by a graveyard, stands on a rock in the centre of the old town, of which nothing is left but fragments of the castle and some ruined walls to the south and south-west. The church was built in the 13th and 14th centuries. Its exterior is massive; the main doorway is hidden by a modern porch. Beyond the Chapel of the Virgin, on the right of the choir, a low sacristy was added at the end of the 17th or beginning of the 18th century. Some fine fragments of earlier sculpture (five panels depicting scenes from the Passion, and three richly decorated canopies) have been incrusted in the outside walls. Tombstones have been built into the walls on either side of the doorway in the left transept, at the entrance to the church.
The interior consists of five naves with low vaulting. In the left arm of the transept, under a tri-cusped pointed arcade, the group “The Death of the Virgin,” represents the Virgin recumbent, with children reading and clinging to her hands and feet, and eight weeping women carrying books. In the chapel on the left of the choir there is a 17th century picture—a view of St. Menehould, with three figures, one of which is the Patron-Saint of the town; the other two are supposed to be Louis XIII. and Richelieu. Behind this chapel, which was formerly used for the ceremonies of the town-guilds, is a recess called the Treasury, a small vaulted 15th century room opening on the choir. The polygonal choir presents a fine appearance with its five slightly pointed windows, framed by two archivolts, supported on little columns with Romanesque capitals. All around is an elegant 13th century arcade, screened with rather heavy woodwork. The last nave on the right consists of three separate 14th century chapels. The capitals of the aisles represent human heads. The chapel of the Virgin contains a curious capital representing an oak laden with acorns, towards which a peasant is driving three pigs. This Chapel was founded in 1552 by the Lord de Saulx, and was used from the end of the 16th century onward by the Guild of Vine-dressers, who had the vaulting painted with frescoes. It is also known as the Chapel of our Lady of the Vines. Formerly it contained a number of tombstones, since removed. There is still to be seen, in one of the chapels off the right aisle, a large and very fine 15th century tombstone with effigies of Jean Toignel and his wife under a handsomely carved Renaissance pediment.
Take the Rue du Cimetière, which passes behind the church, then the Rue Basse-du-Château, which leads to a path skirting the old walls of the castle. From this path there is a fine view over the town, the Valleys of the Aisne and the Auve, and the surrounding hills. Go round the cliffs and return to the steps which lead down to the Rue Chanzy.
SECOND DAY: Sainte-Menehould, Varennes, Montfaucon, Grandpré,
Vienne-le-Château, La Gruerie Wood, Le Four-de-Paris,
La Haute-Chevauchée and La Chalade.
Distance: 130 km.
