Chic hotel or public good? The battle of the Montagne de Reims around the domain of Commétreuil

It is a haven of greenery, about fifteen kilometers from Reims, which was dedicated to hunting in the 1920s.

One hundred years later, the rifles still seem to be out.

Property of the Regional Natural Park of the Mountain of Reims which has become too expensive, this manor and its 150 hectares of garden are indeed in the process of being ceded to the luxury hotelier Barn and it is the beginning of a crusade.

That of businessman Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, grandson of the founder of the champagne house and current president of a Unesco mission on heritage in Champagne.

“The domain of Commétreuil was donated to the natural park some thirty years ago to make it a center for initiation into nature.

It is a public good, that of all the people of the Marnais, which must absolutely remain so, ”he proclaims.

The union committee of the park however decided on March 31, and after eight years of unsuccessful sales at 2 million euros, in favor of a hotel establishment with 75 rooms (horses, inn, vegetable garden and locavore restaurant) comparable to the one already open in Yvelines.

Already too many luxury hotels in the region?

"I proposed the creation of a mixed company, with an elected president and private managers, explains Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger. I even considered that the PNR would rent the domain to us. They said no. “It was indeed ambition to develop on site“ a lung for biodiversity ”, open to the public (but paying), like the park of Sainte-Croix, in Moselle, also located in a regional natural park. “We would have made it a privileged picnic spot, an educational farm, the children could have seen animals, familiarized themselves with art, nature or agriculture,” he summarizes. We are the only region in France not to have such equipment. "

For the businessman, luxury hotels already abound in the area and one more is not the priority.

“As for the cost advanced for the maintenance of the premises: 80 or 100,000 euros per year, it is not much for the communities when we see all the money spent elsewhere, especially as the two employees currently assigned to the estate will be retained by the PNR… I don't intend to stop there.

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An action for annulment before the administrative court

Taittinger filed on June 4, in the name of "public good", an action for annulment before the administrative court of Châlons-en-Champagne.

“It is necessary that the projects envisaged within the perimeter of a regional natural park be consistent with the objectives of its charter, which I consider not to be the case with the Barn project.

The cultural component, for example, is absent.

"Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger finally evokes the" questionable "modification of the local urban plan that the hotel project would imply.

“Justice will do its job,” he said.

For my part, I have a certain popular support.

300,000 Marnais would be more concerned with a center around nature rather than a luxury hotel.

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"We are armored, everything has been done legally," retorts the president of the PNR, Dominique Lévêque, mayor of the town of Aÿ-en-Champagne. He nevertheless deplores the delay that the project is about to take, the hotelier Barn being, out of prudence, justified in postponing the transaction. “It is not because Mr. Taittinger is a big name in champagne that he can oppose democracy. The PNR opted for the Barn project with 98 votes against 13 for the opposing project, there is no possible discussion. »Dominique Lévêque assures us that, contrary to what Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger puts forward, the Barn project should indeed allow, on the fringes of the hotel, free access to visitors over a hundred hectares of forest, in partnership with the PNR which could lead events there - unlike today, where everything is closed.In any case, the Region and the Department no longer want to cover the Commétreuil deficit.