A visit to Provins is almost like walking onto a film set, with medieval town walls stretching the entire circuit of the old town. Inside there are plenty of period buildings and other than power cables and TV aerials, almost no visible modern intrusions. The medieval capital of the Counts of Champagne, Provins is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Visiting Provins
Provins is an easy town to reach, being well sign posted and less than an hour from our resort base just outside Paris. We had lunch in the town square which was very pleasant although, being March, it wasn’t exactly warm. There is plenty of signposted parking outside the old town.
My Experience
We were staying at the Marriott resort north east of Paris, details on our trips are here, so medieval Provins was an easy sightseeing visit. After walking through the excellent Tourist Information place we headed for St Jean’s Gate and then followed the ramparts around to the Jouy Gate. The ramparts were impressively restored and it really gave the scale of the town’s defences. At each gate there were steps up and you could do a short rampart walk.
Other than cars and TV aerials the town has barely been touched by industrialisation. The houses were largely timber framed with some impressive sagging and leaning! We had a welcome lunch stop at Mammy Gateaux – omelette followed by crepes flambe! This was on the main town square which was extremely pretty and even had some modern (18th century) buildings!
Following lunch we then headed out for the walk to the imposing St Quiriace Church. Reading the info inside was quite tragic – the medieval wall paintings inside had been white washed by a bishop and another bishop had allowed craftsmen to remove medieval wood panelling and sell it to pay their wages. The place had also been burned and suffered storm damage. A bit like the Monty Python castle built in a swamp!
The other building dominating the town is the Caesar Tower (named to make it seem a thousand years older than it really is!). A pretty unique piece of architecture – a round base with a square tower and then an octagonal roof section. The views were impressive and the roof with the bells in it was quite amazing – a ridiculously narrow spiral staircase going up to it and then some incredible woodwork and lots of pigeon poo.
Provins Photo Gallery
History
Roman Era
Provins was at the crossroads of two major regional corridors in Roman Gaul: one from Soissons to Troyes and one towards Sens in the south. The upper part of the town was fortified by the Romans. Clovis, the first king of the Franks, seized the Roman fortifications in 485 after his victory at Soissons.
Medieval Era
As proof of its growing importance, by the 9th century, Provins was minting its own coin, the “denier provinois,” and Charlemagne had sent his missi dominici to the town. Under the protection of the Counts of Champagne, it hosted one of the largest Champagne fairs, an agricultural and trade fair crucial to the medieval economy. King Philip IV visited Provins several times in the late 13th century, devastating the town with harsh taxes that ended its period of prosperity and caused residents to flee. The town was besieged numerous times and changed hands frequently in the 14th through 16th centuries.
In one of the most famous events in Provins’ history, the recently crowned King Charles VII attended mass at the Collégiale Saint-Quiriace church, along with his royal court and saint Joan of Arc on August 3, 1429.
References
There is some useful information on the France Voyage website here.
The history above is copied from the Wiki site here.