Travel Guide Presles-En-Brie

The human presence on the site is attested to as early as the Neolithic period, as evidenced by the discovery of flints. The commune is characteristic of the Briard countryside, built in the Middle Ages around a Romanesque stone church. With 2,300 inhabitants, it is now the third most populated commune in Val Briard, behind Rozay-en-Brie. It was the construction of the Marsange housing estate in the 1970s that initiated the demographic expansion of this former village of 500 inhabitants. Presle-en-Brie is a lively town with many associations, various activities and sports fields. We note in this town crossed by MarsangeRiver and adjoining Tournan, the presence of a library, a multipurpose room and the programming of various recurring events such as the Apple Festival in late September which recorded its 30th edition in 2021. You will find a grocery store-bar-tobacco-press-restaurant, a hairdresser, a bakery and a general practitioner. Presles-en-Brie has even its own castle, the castle in Villepatour which now houses an Institute of Motor Education (IEM) of the French Red Cross. It is an agricultural and forest commune, largely watered by streams, with huge fields of cereals or oilseeds. In terms of local celebrities, the great trumpet player Maurice André (1933-2012) lived for many years in Presles-en-Brie. In tribute to this talented resident, the school group of the town bears his name. As for the radio and television host Laurence Boccolini, she got married in July 2004 in Presles-en-Brie. The church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption dates from the 12th century for the unaltered oldest parts; a sandstone bell tower of 45 m high (14th and 15th centuries) had been built by Quentin the carpenter, parish priest. Three bells were cast in the 17th century for this church - Marie Elisabeth in 1713, Marie Anne Josèphe in 1727 and Françoise in 1776 - and ring out on weddings and other events. One can admire gargoyles, lamp-posts and tombs. Finally, the town stood out by the presence of a railway station financed in 1857 by the lord of the manor at the time, who was anxious to provide a quick link to Paris, in the hamlet of Villepatour located on the line from Paris-Est to Mulhouse-Ville. But even if the TGV passes close by, the Presles station has not been in service since the 1970s. It is just in Tournan that travellers get off.