Champagne-Ardenne

The Champagne region is highly cultivated and has immense forests, vast rivers, rolling landscape and deep gorges.

Champagne-Ardenne in the northeast of France, bordering Belgium. It consists of four departments: Aube, Ardennes, Haute-Marne and Marne.

Its rivers, all of which flow west, include the Seine, the Marne and the Aisne.

The region has three autoroutes, totalling 460 km:

- Autoroute A4 connecting Paris and Strasbourg and serving the Reims metropolitan area

- Autoroute A5 connectine Paris and Dijon and serving Troyes and Chaumons

- Autoroute A26 connecting Calais andDijon and serving Reims and Chalons-en-Champagne

The rail network includes the Paris-Strasbourg ling, which follows the Marne Valley and serves Epernay, Chalons-eChampagne and Vitry-le-Francois. The LGV Est TGV line also connecting Paris and Strasbourg will open in 2007 and will serve Reims with a new train station in the commune of Bezannes.

The regions canals include the canal lateral to the Marne and canal from the Marne to the Rhine, which connects to the Marne at Vitry-le-Francois. These are petit gabarit canals.

The Vatry International Airport, primarily dedicated to air freight, has a runway 3650 m long, yet it often unused. The airport is in a sparsely populated area just 150 km from Paris. Some people say it is a good candidate for transformation into a third Parisian airport. Les verts (the French Green Party) supported such a move because the resulting noise pollution would affect fewer people than an airport closer to Paris.

Visitors often go to Champagne because of its history and its world-famous wine. However, their itineraries diverge when they discover the region’s cultural heritage and its cuisine: some visit Troyes and its ancient houses, others visit Langres and its walls, and still others visit Epernay, Reims or Colombey-les-deux-Eglises.

The region contains some magnificent forests and lakes where you can enjoy walks and water sports.

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