Fumay is a commune in the Ardennes

Ardennes (département)

Ardennes is a department in the northeast part of France named after the Ardennes area.- History :The department is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was named after the Ardennes hills, which are located in northeast France, southern...

 department in northern France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, very close to the Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 border.

Geography

It is situated in the Meuse

Meuse River

The Maas or Meuse is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea...

 valley, the main part of the town being surrounded by a large meander of the river.

Population

Economy

Fumay is sometimes known as "The City of Slate" (La Cité de l'Ardoise) due to the slate

Slate

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...

mining which brought prosperity to the town in the nineteenth century. The last slate mine was closed in 1971.

External links

• Official site