What should I visit during my stay in Charleville-Meziers, France?

Question

I'll visit the city in april-may. What could you tell me about it? What should I visit there? ...any interesting information you have, please post it!

Answer 1

Great answer millie... I did not know for Rimbaud. I never dared visiting C-M, i thought there were nothing to see there. But Nancy, Reims, Brussels worth the visit.

Answer 2

To French kids, Charleville-Mézières is mostly known for being the home town of poet Arthur Rimbaud so if you haven't read any of his works yet, you may want to read a little about his works and his life (quite interesting! his life, that is, as I'm not into poetry myself). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rimb... They have a Rimbaud museum there of course. You can check the town's website:

http://www.mairie-charlevillemezieres.fr... , their tourist office website http://www.charleville-mezieres.org/ and also the region's touristic website in English: http://www.ardennes.com/uk/index.aspx#

Otherwise Charleville is not located in a highly touristic region (except for WWI history buffs) if you are from Europe. If you are American, then you may enjoy the medieval sites and buildings. It is also very close to the Belgium border so you can go to Brussels, and close to Luxembourg too (I have never been there but saw a program on it the other day and it looked really beautiful).

You are also close to Reims, whose gothic cathedral is famous for being the place where most French kings were crowned. And the Champagne region is just south of Charleville too so if you are interested in visiting vineyards and wine cellars, that's the place! In local bars, a glass of champagne is only 2 euros.

EDIT: I have never been there and it is not a big city, just a town in a rather rural/semi-rural area so I doubt there is that much entertainment... The main city is Reims and Paris is 1h35 away by train.

But I doubt you'll get bored, they do have a cinema and a theater hall and probably quite a nice shopping area, like most small to average towns in France (there is info on the town's website). They have swimming pools and recreation areas and 8 high schools so I am sure there are places where yound people meet for fun. Also, French teenagers meet and hang out in local bars, not in malls, just follow the locals. You should ask young people who live there through the French Yahoo Portal: http://fr.answers.yahoo.com/dir/;_ylt=Am...