Champagne-Ardenne region, France, satellite image. North is at top. Vegetation is shown in green, water in blue, and urban areas in grey. Champagne-Ardenne (highlighted) is a rural administrative region in north-eastern France, bordering Belgium in the north. It is one of France's least populous regions, with only around 1.3 million inhabitants (2005). Its capital is Chalons-en-Champagne, which lies to the south- east of the region's largest city, Rheims, towards the north-west of the region.