[Sidenote:  A wide valley with steep slopes.]

[Sidenote:  The vine-growing district.]

Going upstream, the valley is quite wide:  from Monvoisin to Dormans, by Chateau-Thierry, it measures two kilometres almost everywhere.  The high cliff which overlooks it on the north, cut by a multitude of narrow valleys coming down from the table-land of the Tardenois, forms a series of buttresses which make excellent defensive positions.  On the sharpest, which is a genuine peninsula overhanging the main valley, sits the village of Chatillon, formerly crowned by a haughty feudal castle, on whose ruins was erected a statue of Pope Urban II, who long ago had trouble with the German emperors.  The slopes below are hard to climb, because of their steepness and the network of tilled fields.  Here we are at the heart of the vine-growing district, and these banks of the Marne contribute largely to the production of the famous champagne.  The vines extend, on long rows of poles, to the very summit of the cliffs, especially on the right bank, which has a better exposure to the sun; they are often connected by strands of wire, on which straw mats are placed to protect the vines from the cold in winter.

[Sidenote:  Allied troops find many obstacles.]

On a lower level, nearer the stream, are magnificent orchards:  the cherry tree joins with the vine to impart to those slopes an aspect of rustic opulence.  Huddled white villages, with tawny-hued pointed roofs, follow one another in regular succession on the rolling ground.  Their names have lately won a terrible celebrity:  Binson, Vandieres, Vincelles, Treloup.  Sandstone quarries burrow into the summit of the cliffs and furnish shelters for the defenders.  Finally, there are strips of forest along the slopes wherever the exposure is thought poorly suited for crops.  All these features unite to form a cheerful, animated, lovely landscape; but at the same time a conglomeration of obstacles which the Allied troops were able to overcome only after fierce fighting.

[Sidenote:  Villages in the hillsides.]

Below the little town of Dormans, the valley narrows temporarily:  from Treloup to Brasles it is frequently less than 500 metres in width.  The cliff, although steep as before, is less cut up, and the patches of forest are large.  At the mouths of the smaller affluent valleys, the villages rear their church-towers on the hillsides, overlooking the lowest vineyards and orchards; on this right bank are Jaulgonne, Charteves, and Mont Saint-Pere, all taken by the Allies late in July, and Fossoy, where the Americans successfully repulsed the German attack of July 15.

[Sidenote:  The ancient town of Chateau-Thierry.]