AUBE

dpartement, Champagne-Ardennes rgion, north-central France, in the old province of Champagne, southeast of Paris. Its area is 2,318 square miles (6,004 square km). The dry chalk platform of Champagne is traversed (southeast-northwest) by the converging Aube and Seine valleys, which cut through Cte des Bars, a region of scarped limestone hills. Agricultural improvements have made the chalk region fertile, but it is sparsely populated, most of the people living in the well-watered valleys. The trade fairs of Champagne, especially at Troyes, were famous in the 12th and 13th centuries. Sheep breeding and wool spinning have given way, except in the Pays d'Othe, to mixed farming and textiles woven of man-made fibres. Hosiery manufacture is widespread, the major mills being at Troyes. Cities that head arrondissements are Troyes (the capital), Bar-sur-Aube, and Nogent-sur-Seine. The Aube Valley, in the southeastern corner of the dpartement, is site of the historic abbey of Clairvaux. Pop. (1982) 289,300.