Cottages and gites in Champagne Ardenne 

     En français

Lying in central northeastern France, Champagne area is one of the country's great historic regions. In past centuries, the regional capital was the great city of Rheims - or Reims as it is spelled in French. For hundreds of years, Rheims,  was one of the important market cities of central western Europe, and its great gothic cathedral stood head and shoulders over the low houses of the old city. For ten centuries, Reims cathedral was the place where almost all the Kings of France were crowned, in memory of Clovis, the first great king of the Franks, who was baptised here in 499 AD.
   Today the capital of the Champagne Ardenne region is the small town of Chalons en Champagne, just south of Rheims. Rheims itself remains the capital of a slightly different Champagne, the sparkling wine that is made exclusively in this region.
    In the north of the region, the department of the Ardennes, bordering on southern Belgium, is quite heavily forested. In the centre of the region, the historic "Champagne", meaning just "the countryside", consists of the departments of the Marne and the Aube. This a rich agricultural area, and one of the breadbaskets of France, with vast cornfields stretching as far as the eye can see. It is also - along the hills called La Montagne de Reims - the location of the Champagne vineyards, which mostly lie between Rheims and Epernay. Troyes, capital of the Aube, is another historic city long famous for its textiles.
   In the south of the region, the department of Haute Marne is very rural, and also reputed to be one of the cheapest areas in France. An area of hills and valleys, small towns and villages, it is very much an example of "la France profonde", or deepest France. With little in the way of tourist infrastructure, it is an area where a gite is often the best, or indeed only option for those wishing to escape from the pressures of city life, and enjoy a few days in this very undisturbed area, where some small towns and villages really do look as if time has passed them by. 
More regional info:   Tourist guide to Champagne

Access to Champagne-Ardenne
By road: from Calais or Lille: The whole area is easily accessible via the A 16 or A26 motorways from Calais, or the A1 / A2 motorways from Belgium and Holland via Reims, or directly from Belgium.
Access by rail: TGV from Paris Gare de l'Est or from Germany
International Airports in this region : none.
Peripheral airports: Paris Charles de Gaulle, Luxembourg, Brussels Charleroi
Low cost airlines serving this region:
Easyjet: Paris CDG, 
Ryanair: Paris Beauvais, Brussels-Charleroi,
Flybe : Paris CDG

Gites in Champagne - Ardenne region

Includes the following French departments: comprend les départements...

08 Ardennes, 10 Aube, 51 Marne, 52 Haute Marne

Pour certains des gîtes présents dans cet annuaire , la location s'effectue via les Gites de France .
For some of the gites presented in this listing , booking must be made through Gites de France .

For bookings and information please contact directly the owners of the property concerned : do not contact Gitelink !