Sainte-Menehould

For the arrondissement, see Arrondissement of Sainte-Menehould.

Sainte-Menehould
The town hall The town hall
Coat of arms of Sainte-Menehould Coat of arms
Sainte-Menehould
Location within Champagne-Ardenne region Sainte-Menehould
Coordinates:
Country	France
Region	Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine
Department	Marne
Arrondissement	Sainte-Menehould
Canton	Sainte-Menehould
Government
• Mayor (2001–2008)	Bertrand Courot
Area1	57.11 km2 (22.05 sq mi)
Population (1999)2	4,979
• Density	87/km2 (230/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	51507 / 51800
Elevation	132–261 m (433–856 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Sainte-Menehould (French pronunciation: ​[sɛ̃t mənu]) is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.

Cuisine

The town and its several restaurants pride themselves on serving a local specialty called pied de cochon or pig's trotter.

History

Dom Pérignon, the Benedictine monk who made important contributions to the production and quality of Champagne wine, and is often (erroneously) credited with its invention, was born in Sainte-Menehould around 1638.

Sainte-Menehould is the town where, during his Flight to Varennes in 1791, the king, Louis XVI was recognised, allegedly on account of the similarity between his face and the image of him that appeared on the coinage, during his attempted flight from Paris towards Flanders (then part of the Austrian empire and thereby ruled by his queen's older brother). The royal party left the town before the significance of the king's recognition had been acted upon, but they were pursued along the road towards Varennes and arrested by Citizen Drouet who is remembered as the local postmaster.

130 years later Ste-Menehould was important in the Champagne Riots of 1910/1911.

Twinning

Cupar, Fife, Scotland, UK

See also

• Communes of the Marne department
• French wine

References

• INSEE commune file

External links

• Official Web site