Most weekends from Metz, we picked somewhere reasonably well-trodden. This one we picked deliberately for the opposite reason — Sedan and Charleville-Mézières, two small towns in the French Ardennes that don’t show up on most “weekend from Paris” lists. We added a Longwy stop out of necessity, since there’s no direct Sunday connection back to Metz from this route. It turned into one of our most memorable weekends in France.

Getting there

From Metz: train via Thionville, then Longuyon, to Charleville-Mézières — about 2.5 hours, roughly €25/person one way. Very few people travel this route, so the trains are short (often just two coaches) and near-empty, but the connections are well-timed and easy to catch. Worth having the Carte Avantage Adulte for this one — a weekend with this many train legs is exactly where it pays off (see our Metz post for details).

Friday night: arriving in Charleville-Mézières

We arrived at night and found our Airbnb close to the train station, then walked the 15-20 minutes into the city center. It was lively — people out with friends and family, a real weekend-night energy. Finding vegetarian food proved harder than expected; most places we passed didn’t have good options, either the usual pizza places or, since it was around 8:30pm by then, already closed for the night with only bars still open. We eventually found a genuinely great Asian restaurant, Chez LaoZhang, near the far end of the train station, with plenty of vegetarian choices, and took our food back to the Airbnb.

One practical note: the Airbnb’s address as shown on Google Maps pointed to the wrong side of the street — if you follow the building numbers rather than the pin, you’ll find it’s actually across the road.

Saturday: Charleville-Mézières

A relaxed day. Charleville-Mézières is known as a “puppet city” and is the birthplace of the poet Arthur Rimbaud. We skipped the poet’s museum after reading that most exhibits and audio are French-only with no translation, and there were no puppet shows running during our visit. Still, we walked the city center, saw the poet’s house from outside (beautifully set on the river), and spent time at a well-regarded local cafe for a long breakfast.

Honest take: Charleville-Mézières’ main square, Place Ducale, is often described as one of Europe’s most beautiful — we didn’t feel that lived up to the reputation, though it’s a genuinely charming small town. If you’re specifically drawn to Rimbaud or the puppet tradition, it’s worth planning your visit around the town’s puppet festival for a fuller experience.

Saturday afternoon into Sunday: Sedan

A roughly 25-minute train took us to Sedan, followed by a 2.5km walk from the station to the town center, where our Airbnb was. Sedan felt like a town the modern era passed by — some genuinely dilapidated buildings, very few tourists (we didn’t see another non-French visitor in the roughly 30 hours we spent there), but also a real, unpolished character to it.

Sedan’s fortress is genuinely massive — reportedly among the largest in Europe — and it felt strange that a town with a landmark like this sees so little traffic. We spent Saturday afternoon just wandering, including along a pleasant riverfront, and visited the castle itself Sunday morning — the whole castle, including the restored sections, along with the audiovisual presentations inside, is well worth the ticket price, even though it’s on the higher side.

Sunday: the Longwy stop

With no direct Sunday train or bus from Sedan back to Metz, we routed through Longwy — about an hour by train. It felt genuinely deserted when we arrived in the afternoon: few people on the streets, most shops closed. The one exception was a pub-cafe near the station, clearly a real local institution — everyone seemed to know everyone, and the room was gathered around a live-streamed horse race, betting through what was clearly a formal, established system — its own cash register, what looked like an online platform, and a machine dispensing tickets. We spent a couple of hours there before the roughly hour-long bus back to Metz, arriving late Sunday evening.

Practical tips

  • Meals ran roughly €10-20 per person across this weekend, with pastries and coffee at typical regional prices.
  • Sedan’s castle ticket is worth the higher price for the AV presentation alone.
  • Prioritize Sedan if you only have time for one of the two towns — the fortress is the standout of the whole weekend.

Frequently asked questions

Is Sedan worth visiting even though it’s not well known? Yes — the fortress alone justifies the trip, and the near-total absence of other tourists gives it a very different feel from anywhere else we visited in France.

Is Charleville-Mézières worth a visit if I’m not interested in Rimbaud or puppetry? It’s pleasant but not essential on its own — worth combining with Sedan rather than visiting alone, unless you’re specifically planning around the puppet festival.

Why stop in Longwy at all? Purely logistical — there’s no direct Sunday connection from Sedan back to Metz. It turned out to be an interesting stop in its own right, but it’s not a planned destination.