Châlons-en-Champagne

Administrative centre of the département of Marne and of the Champagne-Ardenne region in northeast France, 150 km/93 mi east of Paris on the right bank of the River Marne; population (1999) 50,300. Industries include champagne production, brewing, electrical engineering, and textiles manufacture. Châlons was formerly known for its worsted cloth. Tradition has it that Attila the Hun was defeated near here in his attempt to invade France at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451 AD by the Roman general Aëtius and the Visigoth Theodoric.

The town is the site of an important railway junction, and is a centre of the wine trade of Champagne.