Abstract The Pays rémois in the eastern Paris Basin is an administrative area of 1394 km 2 ; in the surroundings of Reims (France). Two main geological substrata are separated by the Île-de-France cuesta: the Tertiary substratum in the western part is composed of various types of geomaterials (clay, sandstone, limestone, burrstone), whereas the substratum in the eastern part is composed only of Cretaceous Chalk. A field survey in each commune of the Pays rémois identified 26 building materials documented in a Geographic Information System database (GIS-database) that includes information about them (lithology, petrographical and petrophysical data, weathering) and the corresponding buildings (e.g. town, georeferenced data, building type, position on the façade). The spatial analysis of the building materials’ distribution (Standard Deviational Ellipse) with GIS identifies their uses and the criteria established for the selection of the materials: availability, efficiency, workability and durability. Some lithologies were preferred for particular buildings or selected for their efficiency in specific positions. The study also defines the relation between the stones’ origin (local and non-local stones) and their application. This database is useful to establish stone replacement strategies in the Pays rémois .