Troyes is the ancient capital of the Champagne region in France. The leaning medieval half-timbered houses and churches of Troyes all ooze charm, and with the town offering top quality museums and shopping outlets, it’s a gem not to be missed. It’s also a great place to try the regional speciality of andouillette, which is a type of sausage!

The city is filled with magnificent churches which are open to the public, including the high-naved St-Pantaléon on rue de Vauluisant, Troyes’ oldest church, twelfth-century Ste-Madeleine and St-Jean-au-Marché, the church where Henry V of England married Catherine of France.

Getting there

The train station Gare de Troyes offers connections to Paris, Dijon, Mulhouse and several regional destinations.

By car, Troyes is at the junction of the motorways A5 (Paris – Troyes – Langres) and A26 (Calais – Reims – Troyes).

By air, the nearest airport is Troyes – Barberey Airport, which is a small regional airport.

Troyes has been a settlement since the Roman era, when it stood at the hub of several roads, including the Via Agrippa which led to Reims, and south through Langres and eventually to Milan.

In the fourth century, the city was the seat of a bishop who, legend says, saved the city from Attila by offering himself as a hostage.

In 878, Louis the Stammerer received the imperial crown from Pope John VIII. At the end of the ninth century, following attacks to the city by Normans, the counts of Champagne chose Troyes as their capital; it remained the capital of the Province of Champagne until the Revolution.

During the Middle Ages, it was an significant trading town, and gave its name to troy weight. The Champagne cloth fairs and the recovery of long-distance trade and new addition of coinage and credit were the real factors that drove the medieval economy of the city.