Provins

Provins was one of the towns of the Champagne fairs, the cycle of great trade markets that moved between four towns through the year and made this the meeting point of merchants from Flanders and Italy for weeks at a time; UNESCO inscribed it in 2001 for that role. What survives is the apparatus of a fair town: about twelve hundred metres of ramparts with towers, the Cesar Tower on the high ground, and an extensive system of vaulted cellars beneath the merchant houses, cut into the chalk, used for storing and showing goods. Roses have been grown here since a count is said to have brought them back from the Levant.

History

Provins stood at the crossroads of Roman roads from Soissons to Troyes and towards Sens, and by the 9th century it minted its own coin, the denier provinois. Under the protection of the Counts of Champagne it hosted one of the largest Champagne fairs, twice a year in the upper town and once in the lower, from 1120 until 1320, and became a banking centre whose denier was accepted across Europe; Henry I of Champagne built the collegiate church of Saint-Quiriace to show the saint's head he had brought from Jerusalem. Philip IV's heavy taxes in the late 13th century ended its prosperity, and the town was besieged and changed hands many times in the 14th to 16th centuries; on 3 August 1429 the newly crowned Charles VII heard Mass at Saint-Quiriace with Joan of Arc, and in 2001 Provins became a World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, Provins).

The main sights

• The ramparts - over a kilometre of walls and towers around the upper town.
• The Cesar Tower - the twelfth-century keep above the town.
• The underground galleries - vaulted cellars cut into the chalk beneath houses.
• The rose gardens - the town's long-standing rose cultivation.

When to go

April to October; the medieval festival in June fills the town, and falconry and jousting shows run through the season. Roses flower in June. Winter is quiet with reduced opening.

Things to know

The medieval shows are staged entertainment and priced separately, and the town leans heavily on them. The upper and lower towns are a steep walk apart. Many monuments close in winter.

Nearby

Paris lies west; Fontainebleau is southwest.

Key facts