Explore Champagne and the Ardennes
Charleville-Mézières – an agglomeration of former stand-alone towns Charleville and Mézières – provides a good base for exploring the northern part of the region, which spreads across the meandering Meuse before the valley closes in and the forests take over.
The splendid seventeenth-century place Ducale, in the centre of town, was the result of the local duke’s envy of the contemporary place des Vosges in Paris, which it somewhat resembles. Despite the posh setting, the shops in the arcades remain down-to-earth and the cafés charge reasonable prices to sit outside.
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Puppets in Charleville
Puppets in Charleville
Charleville is a major international puppetry centre (its school is justly famous), and every three years it hosts one of the largest puppet festivals in the world, the Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes (wfestival-marionnette.com). Up to 150 professional troupes – some from as far away as Mali and Burma – put on around fifty shows a day on the streets and in every available space in town. Tickets are cheap, and there are shows for adults as well as the usual stuff aimed at kids. If you miss the festival you can still catch one of the puppet performances year-round at the Institut de la Marionnette on place Winston Churchill (wwww.marionette.com). If you’re passing by here during the day, you can see one of the automated episodes of the Four Sons of Aymon enacted on the facade’s clock every hour, or all twelve scenes on Saturday at 9.15pm.
