Jo001
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After asking for, and receiving suggestions for our hastily planned trip to northern France, I thought I would do a little report for anyone else planning to visit this region.
The Ardenne region is partly in Belgium, partly in Luxembourg and partly in France. It's not an area we know well at all, but we were very pleased to have visited it.
We sailed into Amsterdam from Newcastle and our first stop was on the outskirts of Antwerp, just off the motorway for convenience. Camping Vogelsang has doubled in price from our last visit and is now €20 per night, plus electricity. €1 was enough to run our fridge, boil a couple of kettles and watch TV. It lasted from about 2.30pm until sometime in the small hours, when our fridge went over to gas. Another €1 in the morning boiled a couple of kettles and powered my hairdryer, it ran out just as we were about to leave. The site is quite scruffy and was fine at €10 but not worth €20. I can't see us being back there.
About 100 miles south of there gets you to Rochefort, properly in the Ardenne region. We stayed on the free aire in the town, no facilities. It's not well signposted, and the motorhome bays aren't marked out. We asked a local, and he said to park in front of a white building at the edge. The town is nice enough, you can visit a monastery nearby where they brew (and sell) their own beer. There's also a castle but it's not visible from the town or the aire.
The next stop was just a short distance at Han sur Lesse. It's a charming little town, the large aire is hardstanding and has electricity and water on each bay - buy a ticket at the tourist information office in town: €12 per night including services. The town centre with church, restaurants, convenience store etc. is a five minute walk, and you can also buy tickets to visit the Grottes (caves) de Han and the animal reserve populated with animals native to the region (boars, wolves, bears, deer and various birds of prey). You travel to the caves and reserve on a little train that leaves from the visitor centre in the town, allow half a day to do both. It was around €20 for each of the two separately, and about €30 if you buy the ticket to do both.
Bouillon was our next visit, it's a picturesque little town with a castle. The aire is free, no services, and it's a wee bit of a walk back to the town. It's not a brilliant aire, quite rough ground (we were spoiled at Han sur Lesse) but served a purpose.
From there, we travelled to Sedan, where we stayed on the Camping Car Park. The CCP is on the river, most people had chairs out to sit and look at the view with a cuppa or glass of wine depending on the time so limited camping type behaviour seems to be tolerated. On the other side of the aire is a park. Sedan also has a fortified castle, it's a bigger town with shops, restaurants and so on. To get there on foot, follow the river downstream to the weir and just before it, where the river starts to bend, turn right. It's a 10 minute walk. At the edge of the town there's a big E Leclerc supermarket, and a Revolution laundry next to the fuel station.
We moved on to Monthermé, recommended by @jacquigem . The aire is in a lovely location on the riverbank, no services. The municipal campsite is a ten minute walk from the town, next to a factory. Again, a good place to visit and the drive to it was very pretty (you can do a loop from Charleville Mézières).
We decided to stop in Charleville Mézières for a few nights, and loved it. It's a big town, with a majestic town square, churches, statues etc. We stayed on the Camping Car Park there too. It's next to a campsite where they were happy to sell me tokens for their laundry - I made it clear I was on the aire, but they were fine with me using the facilities. This was probably my favourite stop. The aire is again next to a park and little marina and the town is lovely.
As well as recommendations from here, we used this website - https://www.visitardenne.com/en
I had completely underestimated this region. This won't be our last visit.
The Ardenne region is partly in Belgium, partly in Luxembourg and partly in France. It's not an area we know well at all, but we were very pleased to have visited it.
We sailed into Amsterdam from Newcastle and our first stop was on the outskirts of Antwerp, just off the motorway for convenience. Camping Vogelsang has doubled in price from our last visit and is now €20 per night, plus electricity. €1 was enough to run our fridge, boil a couple of kettles and watch TV. It lasted from about 2.30pm until sometime in the small hours, when our fridge went over to gas. Another €1 in the morning boiled a couple of kettles and powered my hairdryer, it ran out just as we were about to leave. The site is quite scruffy and was fine at €10 but not worth €20. I can't see us being back there.
About 100 miles south of there gets you to Rochefort, properly in the Ardenne region. We stayed on the free aire in the town, no facilities. It's not well signposted, and the motorhome bays aren't marked out. We asked a local, and he said to park in front of a white building at the edge. The town is nice enough, you can visit a monastery nearby where they brew (and sell) their own beer. There's also a castle but it's not visible from the town or the aire.
The next stop was just a short distance at Han sur Lesse. It's a charming little town, the large aire is hardstanding and has electricity and water on each bay - buy a ticket at the tourist information office in town: €12 per night including services. The town centre with church, restaurants, convenience store etc. is a five minute walk, and you can also buy tickets to visit the Grottes (caves) de Han and the animal reserve populated with animals native to the region (boars, wolves, bears, deer and various birds of prey). You travel to the caves and reserve on a little train that leaves from the visitor centre in the town, allow half a day to do both. It was around €20 for each of the two separately, and about €30 if you buy the ticket to do both.
Bouillon was our next visit, it's a picturesque little town with a castle. The aire is free, no services, and it's a wee bit of a walk back to the town. It's not a brilliant aire, quite rough ground (we were spoiled at Han sur Lesse) but served a purpose.
From there, we travelled to Sedan, where we stayed on the Camping Car Park. The CCP is on the river, most people had chairs out to sit and look at the view with a cuppa or glass of wine depending on the time so limited camping type behaviour seems to be tolerated. On the other side of the aire is a park. Sedan also has a fortified castle, it's a bigger town with shops, restaurants and so on. To get there on foot, follow the river downstream to the weir and just before it, where the river starts to bend, turn right. It's a 10 minute walk. At the edge of the town there's a big E Leclerc supermarket, and a Revolution laundry next to the fuel station.
We moved on to Monthermé, recommended by @jacquigem . The aire is in a lovely location on the riverbank, no services. The municipal campsite is a ten minute walk from the town, next to a factory. Again, a good place to visit and the drive to it was very pretty (you can do a loop from Charleville Mézières).
We decided to stop in Charleville Mézières for a few nights, and loved it. It's a big town, with a majestic town square, churches, statues etc. We stayed on the Camping Car Park there too. It's next to a campsite where they were happy to sell me tokens for their laundry - I made it clear I was on the aire, but they were fine with me using the facilities. This was probably my favourite stop. The aire is again next to a park and little marina and the town is lovely.
As well as recommendations from here, we used this website - https://www.visitardenne.com/en
I had completely underestimated this region. This won't be our last visit.
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