PLACES TO VISIT
Building, Villages, Towns and Cities

1) Braux- Sainte-Cohiere chateau at Valmy

2) Bar-le-Duc
A pleasant medium sized town with a river running through and a number of floral bridges.
Especially impressive is the steep sided Quartier Renaissance. You can drive to the top and park.
Some nice eating areas throughout the town

3) Bouillon (just inside Belgium border - 53 miles) - castle. Definitely worth a visit with lots of eating places, including Chinese and Thai, next to the river. An easy and pleasant walk around the bend in the river. Canoeing. Tea shops (We can recommend Phillippe Legrand's cakes.)
We ate at a small restaurant/bar called 'The Quay' which was reasonably priced and the food was good.
A little train does tours around the town and there is a museum.

4) Chateau de Day at Neuville Day

5) Old working limestone water mill at Rarecourt

6) Vendresse - excellent presentation in English relating to old iron foundries of the area. Great interactions with Blast Furnace. Children over 8 would love it. Fish farm next door you can walk around. Located to east of Le Chesne.

7) The Citadel (castle) at Sedan - hand held radio sets catering for various languages

8) The citadel & museum at Monmedy with excellent views of surrounding countryside. Via Grandpré, Buzancy & Stenay (canal & beer museum). Pisseria and restaurant in town below citadel walls.

9) Numerous fortified churches

10) The Cities
Reims
Cathedral, shops & champagne houses
Shops - pedestrianised walkways
Out of town shopping - huge centre at Cormontreuil
Directions for Cormontreuil D6, D20, D977, D19, D931, A4/N44. Just after first sign for C. there is a right turn - if you go over the roundabout with what looks like a crashed plane you've gone too far. Follow C. signs- cross canal, cross motorway - at roundabout straight over to commercial zone, you'll see the huge supermarket Cora on your left.
A big antique market the first Sunday of the month at the Park Expos

Metz
Huge cathedral, fresh food market next to cathedral and we think it is the easiest of
the cities to access and we enjoyed shopping here

Troyes
Numerous ancient timbered buildings
Cathedral
Various shops including antique
Many reasonably priced restaurants
90miles (120kms) - passing through some pretty villages and with excellent views of the Argonne

11) The church at Vouziers

12) Lavoirs (communal washing places) at Senuc and practically every other village in the Argonne. Often beautifully decorated with fowers.

13) Beaulieu en Argonne - beautiful timbered village at top of a hill with restaurant and marked walking routes

14) Verdun
Underground tour, (on a small train), of wartime installations (take a coat)
Riverside restaurants
In season many boats moor alongside the Meuse in the town
A water feature flows through the town and eventually becomes a fountain in the river (Charlie Dimmock eat your heart out)

15) Charleville-Mézières
Place Ducale- ancient market square with cafes and shops
River walks
Just to north-east Parc Animalièr - all Ardennes wild animals there - free entry (take bread to feed deer)
Clock with puppets - each hour reveals a scene from a local legend
Pedestrianised shopping
Wireless museum
Arthur Rimbauld museum (poet)
Annual Fayre in September
Brand new leisure pool - boys must wear proper swimming trunks (can be borrowed from pool attendant). Excellent reports about the pool
New marina at riverside
Many children's playgrounds in park at riverside
Le Piratier - galleon restaurant (Commercial Zone Moulin Leblanc) Open all week 11.30 - 3.00pm, 6.30 - 11.00pm. Saturday & Sunday 6.30 - 10.00pm

16) Rocroi
Acessed via the wooded, hilly slopes of the Ardennes hills, a tar shaped fortified town

17) St Ménèhould
Pedalo boats around town
Restaurant - the Le Rouge Cheval - menu in English in Bistro (French in restaurant)
Old part of village with timbered houses at top of hill around church and good views
Chinese & Vietnames restaurant
Intermarche, SuperU, Shopi and Lidls supermarkets
Beautiful flowers

18) Champagne

Walking & driving tours around vineyards (English booklet - The Sparkling Vineyards)
Visit champagne cellars at Epernay & Reims including Moet & Chandon & Mercier
Mercier - the first house on the way into Epernay. English tour around caves on a little train - Champagne tasting available

19) Galleries
Beaulieu en Argonne
Evres en Argonne

20) French Cinemas
Vouziers
St Menehould

21) Pretty Villages
Bri Zeaux
Florent en Argonne
Passavant en Argonne
Bellefontaine
Beaulieu en Argonne
Brizeaux

22) Brocante (antique & second hand shops/ fairs and car boot sales)

Reims has a big antique market the first Sunday of the month at the Park Expos

Often a list of fairs (many like car boot sales) in the local paper known as L'Union - Friday's edition. There is usually one every Sunday in late spring to early autumn;

A shop at Varenne- en-Argonne only open at weekends

Quite a large centre at Romogne-sous-Mount Facon

Vouziers has 2 shops with quite a lot of furniture but also other small items that may be interesting

Les Islettes

23) Tourist Information Contacts

Charleville-Mézières,
22/24 Place Ducale,
F-08000 Charleville-Mézières
Tel: 00 33 324060875

Vouziers
Office de Tourisme de L'Argonne
Vousinoise
17 Rue Chanzy
BP 79
Vouziers
Tel: 03 24 71 97 57
e-mail: otav@wandoo.fr

Sedan
Office de Tourisme de Pays Sedanais
Place de Chateau Fort
BP322
Sedan
Tel: 03 24 27 73 73
e-mail; OT.Sedan@wanadoo.fr