Reims (France) – Location, History, Facts

Reims is a commune and subprefecture in France’s Grand Est region, in the Marne department.

Reims, France.

Country: France
Coordinates: 49.2653° N, 4.0286° E
Country and region: France; Grand Est region
Departmental role: Commune and subprefecture of Marne
Departmental prefecture: Châlons-en-Champagne, not Reims

Reims overview

Reims is a commune and subprefecture in France’s Grand Est region, in the Marne department. Its defining role combines municipal administration with a wider urban function: it is the largest commune in Marne and belongs to the Grand Reims urban community alongside 142 other communes. The city also carries several historical layers, from the Remi settlement and Roman Durocortorum to the traditional coronation site of French kings and the place where Germany’s unconditional surrender was signed in 1945.

Official recorded sales

Residential property prices in Reims

The median recorded residential sale price was €2,721 per m² across 14,371 qualifying transactions in 2021–2025. This is a historical transaction measure, not a live asking price or a valuation.

Apartment median: €2,731/m²
House median: €2,676/m²
Source updated: 2026-07-17

Open the full data analysis and methodology

Reims coordinates

Reims is commonly mapped at approximately 49.2653° N, 4.0286° E, or 49.2653, 4.0286 in decimal degrees.

Degrees: 49.2653° N, 4.0286° E

Decimal: 49.2653, 4.0286

Where Reims is located

The city stands on the Vesle River in northeastern France, about 129 kilometres northeast of Paris. It is located in the Grand Est region and the Marne department, whose prefecture is Châlons-en-Champagne rather than Reims. The commune covers 46.9 square kilometres and had 177,674 residents in 2023, according to the supplied Wikipedia notes. Its position connects a river settlement, a major departmental urban centre, and the broader intercommunal area administered through Grand Reims.

A subprefecture with a wider intercommunal role

Reims performs municipal and subprefectural functions while serving as the largest commune in Marne.

The city’s civic status has two levels. As a commune, it is an individual local authority; as a subprefecture, it is an administrative centre within the Marne department. It is not the department’s prefecture, because that function belongs to Châlons-en-Champagne. Its scale also gives it a role beyond its municipal boundary: the city participates in Grand Reims, an urban community made up of Reims and 142 other communes. This makes the place both a local government unit and part of a larger structure for urban cooperation.

A Vesle-side city in the Marne urban system

The city’s urban setting is defined by the Vesle River, its location in northeastern France, and its connection to 142 neighbouring communes through Grand Reims.

The supplied location data place the city on the Vesle River, approximately 129 kilometres northeast of Paris, within Grand Est and the Marne department. Its 46.9-square-kilometre municipal area forms the core of a much larger intercommunal arrangement. Grand Reims links the commune with 142 others, so the urban setting cannot be understood only as the built area inside the municipal boundary. The spatial relationship is simultaneously geographic, through the river and regional position, and institutional, through the urban community.

From Durocortorum to a wartime surrender venue

Public use has shifted from a Gallic and Roman settlement to a royal ceremonial centre, a wartime city, and a site of postwar military capitulation.

The Remi founded the settlement around 80 BC, and under Roman rule it was known as Durocortorum. Reims Cathedral later became the traditional setting for the coronation and anointing of French kings; Joan of Arc accompanied Charles VII there in 1429. The First World War brought severe damage when German bombardment and a subsequent fire affected the cathedral and city in 1914. On 7 May 1945, the German Wehrmacht’s unconditional surrender was signed at the headquarters of the Allied expeditionary forces in Reims.

Cathedral, museums, and Champagne houses

The city’s public identity is shaped by its cathedral complex, museums, Champagne producers, and institutions connected with regional history and culture.

Several institutions give the city’s civic and cultural life distinct anchors. The Palace of Tau, Musée Saint-Remi, Museum of Fine Arts, Automobile Museum Reims-Champagne, and Museum of the Surrender interpret religious, artistic, military, and industrial subjects. Champagne production is another institutional presence: the city is one of the centres of Champagne production, and major Champagne houses maintain headquarters there. These organisations connect the urban economy and cultural infrastructure to both local history and a product associated with the wider region.

A city where French ceremony and European conflict meet

Reims represents a public meeting point between French monarchy, national wartime memory, and internationally recognised heritage.

The city’s symbolic role rests on specific sites and events rather than on a general claim of prestige. Its cathedral was the traditional place for French royal coronations, linking the city to the formation and display of monarchy. The 1914 destruction made the cathedral and city part of First World War memory, while the 1945 surrender connected the place to the end of the Second World War in Europe. The cathedral, Palace of Tau, and former Abbey of Saint-Remi were jointly listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991.