Volailles du plateau de Langres

The plateau de Langres shares a relationship with poultry farming that reaches far back into local history. A cartulary from the abbaye de Montier-en-Der, drawn up in the 13th century, records that Charlemagne and his descendants — including Lothair, to whom the Bassigny fell under the Treaty of Verdun in 842 — were already demanding wine, oats, hay, hens and eggs from the monastery. The Langres 'Terrier', dated 1334, notes for its part three major annual fairs — Saint-Pierre, Saint-Michel and Sainte-Catherine — where cake and egg merchants rubbed shoulders in the square with sellers of duvets and feather mattresses.

This poultry tradition endured across the centuries through the vicissitudes of local history: a tale from 1576 relates how the village of Marcilly-en-Bassigny, threatened by approaching enemies, had to 'shut up the poultry yard' before being given over to the flames; as late as 1903, the canton of Clefmont produced enough eggs and poultry for a 'consommier' to set out each week to resell his collection at the markets of Langres and Chaumont. In 1960, the ferme des Tilleuls du Bassigny, in Lénizeul, established its own slaughterhouse — still approved today — before developing farm-based production among the plateau's breeders, recognised by the Label Rouge in 1990.