Église de Champaubert (lac du Der)

Giffaumont-Champaubert

On a peninsula of the Lac du Der-Chantecoq, the church of Saint-Laurent at Champaubert is the only visible remnant of the villages sacrificed to create the Marne reservoir, built to protect Paris from flooding. In 1974, the filling of the lake drowned three villages of the Marne — Champaubert-aux-Bois, Chantecoq and Nuisement-aux-Bois — whose three hundred or so inhabitants had to abandon their houses, land and cemeteries. Built in the 16th century and rebuilt in 1873–1874, the church of Champaubert stood on slightly higher ground: it was saved from the waters thanks to the dogged fight of the last mayor, Gabriel Thiéblemont, his daughter and villagers such as Roger Butard. Now protected by a rock-fill embankment, it hosts art exhibitions and has become the emblem of the lake, its bell tower reflected alone in the vast expanse of water. The church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste at Nuisement met a different fate: dismantled stone by stone, it was re-erected with its cemetery, a school, a forge and a dovecote at the museum village of Sainte-Marie-du-Lac-Nuisement, where an annual mass keeps alive the memory of the drowned villages. For fifty years the place has fed stories and commemorations around the drowned bell towers of the Der.

Getting there : Champaubert peninsula, on the road around the Lac du Der between Giffaumont and Éclaron; surroundings freely accessible all year round

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound