The best road cycling routes around Nouvion-Sur-Meuse

Escape between Monthermé and Charleville, return trip. Very pleasant. Quite busy in the morning. I recommend

The beautiful and strikingly modern town hall of the Mezières district. The adjacent forecourt was traffic-calmed a few years ago. There's also a drinking water fountain in the southwest corner of the square.

This section is part of the Trans-Ardennes, a cycle route that is fully signposted in both directions and which links beautiful historical sites in the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

The Trans-Ardennes Greenway follows the old towpath along the Meuse. As you leave Lumes, you pass under the railway bridge, then the motorway, before entering quieter lands.

The original stained glass windows disappeared during bombings in 1815, 1870 and 1918. Today the basilica has an exceptional collection of contemporary stained glass windows, created between 1954 and 1979 by René Dürrbach, a friend of Picasso. Over 25 years, this artist has created a colossal set of 68 stained glass windows, unique in Europe, which honor the former 'Black Virgin' and the 'Virgin of Light' by referring to the universal symbols of colors, shapes and numbers, inspired through his collaboration with Henri Giriat. Since 2018, the former sacristy of the church has housed the Trésor d'art sacré des Ardennes, which contains around fifty masterpieces (ancient statues, precious relics, etc.) that were previously inaccessible to the public.

The construction of the Basilica of Notre-Dame-d'Espérance took more than a century between 1499 and 1615. The work was interrupted several times, for example during the siege of Mézières in 1521. The building is listed as a monument and is a masterpiece of the flamboyant gothic. However, the main portal and the tower break with the Gothic style and are built in Renaissance style, recognizable by the round arch and the coffers in the vault. The bell tower was built in the 19th century. The south portal is particularly opulent. King Charles IX and Elisabeth of Austria, grandniece of Charles V, entered through this door in 1570 for their wedding ceremony, even though the construction of the church had not yet been completed. The choice of Méeières had a strong symbolic value: reconciliation could be achieved through this strategic alliance.

The Hôtel de Ville de Mézières, was rebuilt after the bombings of November 1918 and construction was completed in 1930. The facade of the building contains elements of medieval, Renaissance and Baroque architecture. The interior of the Town Hall reveals a neo-Baroque decoration. In 1966, the municipality of Charleville-Mézières was created by the merger of several municipalities, making the Hôtel de Ville de Mézières the town hall of Charleville-Mézières. The town hall is located on Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, which was completely renovated and modernized between 2018 and 2020. It is an impressive building that reflects Charleville-Mézières' status as a department capital.

Here begins the Canal des Ardennes, which connects the Meuse with the Aisne and the waterways of the Seine basin; the 106 km long canal was built during the time of King Louis Philippe (second quarter of the 19th century) and has 46 locks between Pont-à-Bar and Berry-au-Bac in the southwest.