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To the northeast of Reims, the scenery of the Ardennes region along the Meuse valley knocks spots off any landscape in Champagne. Most of the hills lie over the border in Belgium, but there's enough of interest on the French side to make it well worth exploring. In war after war, the people of the Ardennes have been engaged in protracted last-ditch battles down the valley of the Meuse which, once lost, gave invading armies a clear path to Paris. The rugged, hilly terrain and deep forests (frightening even to Julius Caesar's legionnaires) gave some advantage to World War II's Resistance fighters when the Ardennes was annexed to Germany, but even peacetime living has never been easy. The land is unsuitable for crops, and the slateworks and ironworks, which were the main source of employment during the last century, were closed down during the 1980s. The only major investment in the region has been a nuclear power station in the loop of the Meuse at Chooz, to which locals responded by etching "Nuke the Elysee!" high on a half-cut cliff of slate just downstream. Tourism, the main growth industry, is developing apace - there are walking and boating possibilities, plus good train and bus connections - though the eerie isolated atmosphere of this region remains
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