Even more exciting than the last two entries on this site about numbers 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 in my quest to climb all of the 96 highpoints of the French departments: No 10
At least this one had a bit more elevation than the previous ones: 504 meters. However, it was still not possible, not to drive to the highpoint. This was mainly because I was in
a hurry to go to the meetings of the American Association of Wine Economists in nearby Reims (why American, why Reims, you may wonder...) but also because even though it is at 504 m definetely higher than many other peaks on this list, it is by no means a point of prominence
and the surrounding area is only slightly lower.
In any case, I had left Namur before 7 in the morning and gone straight southeast on the E411 direction Luxembourg before turning right at some point and going another 30 minutes through the
beautiful country side of the Ardennes. I had printed a few maps of the rough location of the highpoint, but still gotten lost a few times before I finally got to a plateau-like area with a public toilet, some tourist maps, a long collapsed (or never built) tower (whose presence was announced on numerous bulleting boards) and a summit market with "La Croix Scaille" written on it.
A nearby board also explained the story of the name of the place, but I will have to supply that information some other time.
After about 10 minutes at the highpoint I got back into the car and drove to Reims to participate in the meetings.
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This page was last updated: Thu July 2 2009
