Provins

Provins was a fair town. Twice a year in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Champagne fairs brought Flemish cloth and Italian money to this hill above the Voulzie, and the counts of Champagne built accordingly — ramparts still standing, the Tour César keeping watch over the upper town, and the Grange aux Dîmes below, where the merchants stored what they had not sold. The trade moved to the sea routes and the town stopped growing. UNESCO listed it in 2001 as a medieval fair town left largely intact. The roses came back with the crusaders, and Provins still lives partly on them.