Charleville-Mezieres

Charles de Gonzague laid out Charleville from 1606 around the Place Ducale, a large arcaded square of brick and stone pavilions with steep slate roofs, designed by Clément Métezeau, younger brother of the architect who probably designed the Place des Vosges in Paris, which it closely resembles. Arthur Rimbaud was born here in 1854, wrote most of his poetry before he was twenty and is buried in the town cemetery; a museum in the old mill covers him. Charleville is also the capital of puppetry, hosting a large international festival every two years, and the Grand Marionnettiste clock on the institute facade plays a scene from a local legend every hour, with the full sequence on Saturday evenings.

History

Charleville and Mézières were long separate towns on opposite banks of the Meuse, about 1.2 km apart. Mézières took its name from the Latin maceriae, "ramparts", and Charleville was founded in 1606 by Charles Gonzaga, later Duke of Mantua; it prospered from the 17th century, lost its fortifications under Louis XIV in 1687 and passed to France in 1708. The royal arms factory here gave its name to the Charleville musket, and in the 19th century the town made arms, nails, hardware, wine, spirits and slate, with a port, a theatre, a library and a natural history museum; the two towns were joined by a suspension bridge by the mid-19th century and merged into one commune in 1966, and the Hôtel de Ville was completed in July 1933 (Wikipedia, Charleville-Mézières).

What's there

• Place Ducale - a large arcaded square of 1606 in brick and stone.
• The puppet clock - hourly mechanical scenes on the institute facade.
• The Rimbaud museum - the poet's town, house and grave.
• The Meuse loops - the river winding through wooded Ardennes hills.

When to go

April to October; the World Puppet Theatre Festival runs in September in odd years and transforms the town. The clock plays hourly year-round.

Things to know

Outside the festival the town is quiet and industrial in parts. The Rimbaud sites are modest. The puppet clock is brief and easy to miss if you arrive off the hour.

Nearby

Sedan lies east; the Ardennes forest is north.

Key facts