I had a couple of days off, and they promised to be nice and sunny so I booked a room, packed some clothes and a tootbrush, and went to the French Ardennes, only a two-hour drive from where I live.  During the first part the (sometimes rather impressive) views the river-valleys offer soon compensated for the missed morning-coffee.  The "Rock of 7 villages" for example shows exactly what the name promises.

Sedan's massive fortified castle is impressive.  It has been expanded many times over the years and the result is that there are now places where you can actually walk inside the walls, between the older and newer defences.  A tour takes about an hour and a half, and there are audioguides available in many languages - I'd recommend this tour strongly.  You're taken up and down and all around, starting at the foundations built on top of the rocks, and then all the way up where a small museum shows some of the history of the fortress.

Inside are a hotel and a restaurant.  Can't say much about the hotel other than that they are friendly at the reception.  I can say about the restaurant that they serve an excellent pintade and delicious brochettes de boudin blanc :-)

I picked Stenay as a stopover because a) there was a hotel and b) it was near where I wanted to go on the second day.  Stenay turned out to be the average village with a church and a town-hall, but also with a pleasure-port and loads of lovely places at the shores of the Canal des Ardennes or the Meuse.

The "Trois Cantons" area of the Ardennes is heaven for cyclists and hikers.  Nice views around every other bend in the road, short slopes that bite your calfs reward you with yet another panorama, only there for you.

The Lac de Bairon, just north of Le Chesne, is divided into two parts. One where only recreational fishing is allowed, one where other forms of recreation are possible too.

The "Ducal Square" in Charleville-Mézières reminded me strongly of the Placa Reial in Barcelona.  Though the Place Ducal is more beautiful, Placa Reial is cosier, it lives more, it's more lively, and I think that has all to do with the fact that cars are allowed in the Place Ducal, which makes it noisy and unpleasant to walk around from here to there.

It didn't stop me from having lunch there though :-)

Of course there's more to see in Charleville-Mézières. Churches and town-halls, some remains of ramparts, and let's not forget Arthur Rimbaud is from the area.

And on the front of the Tourist Office a giant puppet shines, hinting already puppets play a role in this city.  "Just around the corner" is the Institut de la Marionnette, where every hour the Horloge du Grand Marionnettiste plays an episode of the story of the Aymon brothers, a Medieval tragedy linked to the Ardennes.