The commune has been awarded three flowers by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition of cities and villages in Bloom.[3]
Geography
Aix-en-Othe is located in the western part of the department of the Aube, 25 km west of Troyes 30 km and 40 km east of Sens.
It is in the Nosle valley: the Nosle is a tributary of the Vanne river. The motorway E54/E511/A5 passes west to east about 2 km north of the commune. The road D374 comes south from the motorway to the town and passes through the commune to Villemoiron-en-Othe. Several other district roads pass through the commune: the D31 from the west and continuing to the north, the D77 and D139 from the south, the D194 from the south-east and the D121 from the east. The nearest railway station is outside the commune about 3 km north of the town near Villemaur-sur-Vanne accessible from the D374 road.[4]
The Nosle stream flows through the commune from the south-east to the north-west and into the Vanne river. There are forests in the south and north of the commune which is mostly farmland. There are a number of hamlets in the commune. These are: La Vove, Le Jarc, Druisy, Pitoite, Les Cornees Alexandre, Les Cornees Lalliat, La Bouillant, Le Mineroy, and Les Chevreux in the southern corner.
Azure, with band of Argent between two cotices potent counter potent of Or, bordure barry wavy of 4 argent and azure, in chief Or charged with an eagle double-headed of sable.
The War Memorial. Inaugurated on 27 September 1902, it includes the names of the dead soldiers of France in 1870–1871, the two world wars, and the dead in North Africa and TOE. On the base of the monument is a hunter in the position of an alerted sentry.
Smokestacks from the 19th century. There are two of them with a height of 30 to 40 metres. They are from the old Hosiery factories. They testify to the type of industrial activity in their time.
Religious heritage
The Chapel of Saint-Avit
The commune has two religious buildings that are registered as historical monuments:
The Church of the Nativity (16th century).[29] The church contains a very large number of items that are registered as historical objects.[30]
Notable People linked to the commune
Ernest Millot (1836-1891), explorer. In his expedition to the Red River (which flows through Hanoi) from 1872 to 1873 he sought a waterway to bring to Tonkin the immense wealth of Yunnan (South China). Ernest Millot was also mayor of the Shanghai French Concession
Jacques Chéreau, sculptor, was born in Aix-en-Othe. He has exhibited in Napa (California) as well as Geneva, Brisbane, Miami, and San Francisco. His works are on permanent display in the Michelle Boullet Gallery in Paris, the Cafmeyer gallery in Knokke (Belgium), and recently at the Marie Ricco gallery in Calvi.
Joachim du Bellay, in his "Ode to the Prince of Melphe"[31] Antoine Caraccioli lauded Aiz, (that is to say Aix-en-Othe) as follows:[32]
Go, see my sweet companion
The sweet pleasures of the Champaigne
Its fields, its waves and woods.
..........
Go and see this beautiful edifice
That nature and artifice
Have embellished with a hundred pleasures.
This is Aiz that beautiful abode
Only to be torn away in less than an hour
Our most ambitious desires.
There, a pleasant sorrow
The certainty fleeing across the plain
Where the hares follow us;
There saintly solitude
Far from trials and business affairs,
Happily we live.
^Poetry is notoriously difficult to translate. Here is the original French:
Allon' voir ma douce compaigne
Les doux plaisirs de la Champaigne
Ses prez, ses ondes et ses bois.
..........
Allon'voir ce bel édifice
Que la nature et l'artifice
Ont embelly de cent plaisirs.
C'est Aiz dont la belle demeure
Peult arracher en moins d'une heure
Nos plus ambicieux désirs.
Là, d'une plaisante peine,
Le cert fuyant par la plaine
Ou le lyèvre nous suyvrons;
Là sainctement solitaires,
Loing de procès et d'affaires,
Heureusement nous vivrons.
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