The Mailly-Champagne Quarry
Did you know that the formation of chalk, so characteristic of "chalky" Champagne, dates from the same period as the late dinosaurs, some 70 million years ago?
The chalk is followed by lignite clays, sands and limestones rich in marine or lake fossils (Tertiary era) on top of which we find millstone clays and aeolian silts (Quaternary era). And to see all of that, all you need to do is to walk around.
Like a visit to the centre of the earth, but under the open sky! Where? In Mailly-Champagne, in the Montagne de Reims Regional Nature Park, where an "educational quarry" enables visitors to discover the local geological treasures thanks to its gigantic piles of sedimentary layers. It is the only complete and continuous cross-section of land of the Tertiary period in the whole of the east of the Parisian basin.
Access this to this reference site is free all year. The Montagne de Reims Regional Nature Park has published a booklet to help you visit the Mailly-Champagne educational quarry like a veritable geological expert!
Discover the quarry in the course of a hike
GPS access
For easier access to this site, we offer you the GPS file for the departure car park.
Download the file
Additional information:
Parc Naturel Régional de la Montagne de Reims (Montagne de Reims Regional Nature Park)
Chemin de Nanteuil
51480 POURCY
Tel: 03 26 59 44 44 – Fax: 03 26 59 41 63
www.parc-montagnedereims.fr