{ "version": 1, "siteKey": "ardennes", "siteName": "Ardennes", "siteUrl": "https://ardennes.app", "launchStage": "production", "searchPosture": "standalone-indexable", "indexable": true, "publisher": { "id": "https://belgianpremier.com/#organization", "name": "BelgianPremier Travel", "parent": "el-premier" }, "routes": [ { "path": "/", "url": "https://ardennes.app/", "title": "Ardennes Short Break Planner", "summary": "A decision-led start page for matching river valleys, castle towns, forest bases, rail access, memory layers, and one-night trip shape.", "indexable": true, "editorialDepthKey": "regional-promise", "sourceIds": [ "visit-wallonia", "visit-ardenne", "belgian-train", "el-premier-registry" ] }, { "path": "/brussels-to-ardennes/", "url": "https://ardennes.app/brussels-to-ardennes/", "title": "Brussels to the Ardennes", "summary": "A conservative arrival guide for readers deciding between a Brussels rail day, a car-based weekend, and a simpler city break.", "indexable": true, "editorialDepthKey": "arrival-margin", "sourceIds": [ "belgian-train", "visit-wallonia", "visit-ardenne" ] }, { "path": "/one-night-itinerary/", "url": "https://ardennes.app/one-night-itinerary/", "title": "One-Night Ardennes Itinerary", "summary": "A practical sequencing page for arrival, base choice, one anchor visit, dinner rhythm, and a calm second morning.", "indexable": true, "editorialDepthKey": "overnight-sequence", "sourceIds": [ "visit-wallonia", "visit-ardenne", "belgian-train" ] }, { "path": "/where-to-stay/", "url": "https://ardennes.app/where-to-stay/", "title": "Where to Stay in the Belgian Ardennes", "summary": "A stay-base decision guide for river towns, castle villages, memory bases, forest bases, rail-friendly edges, and deeper Ardennes weekends.", "indexable": true, "editorialDepthKey": "base-as-editorial-choice", "sourceIds": [ "visit-wallonia", "visit-ardenne" ] }, { "path": "/train-car-logistics/", "url": "https://ardennes.app/train-car-logistics/", "title": "Ardennes Train and Car Logistics", "summary": "A logistics guide for checking train feasibility, deciding when a car matters, and keeping base transfers realistic.", "indexable": true, "editorialDepthKey": "logistics-as-editorial-filter", "sourceIds": [ "belgian-train", "visit-wallonia" ] }, { "path": "/villages-castles-hikes-rivers/", "url": "https://ardennes.app/villages-castles-hikes-rivers/", "title": "Villages, Castles, Rivers, and Memory", "summary": "A nature, heritage, food, and memory decision guide for avoiding overloaded routes and choosing one strong Ardennes lane.", "indexable": true, "editorialDepthKey": "texture-selection", "sourceIds": [ "visit-wallonia", "visit-ardenne", "commons-ourthe" ] } ], "narrativePillars": [ { "key": "forest", "title": "Forest", "summary": "The Ardennes should feel wooded, wet, and old rather than alpine: Arduenna Silva, Hautes Fagnes, fog, beech, spruce, winter, and slower movement." }, { "key": "rivers", "title": "Rivers", "summary": "The Semois, Ourthe, Lesse, Meuse, Ambleve, and Our shape the real trip logic through valleys, bends, caves, canoe routes, towns, and borders." }, { "key": "castles", "title": "Castles", "summary": "Bouillon, La Roche-en-Ardenne, Dinant, Vianden, Sedan, and smaller fortress towns explain the Ardennes as a frontier landscape." }, { "key": "memory", "title": "Memory", "summary": "Bastogne, the Battle of the Bulge, and wider wartime memory need sober context, not adventure branding or casual attraction-list language." }, { "key": "food", "title": "Food", "summary": "Jambon d'Ardenne, trout, game, mushrooms, cheeses, abbey and local beers, and winter cooking should support place identity." } ], "editorialJudgements": [ { "key": "start-with-constraint", "routePath": "/", "title": "Start with the constraint, not the postcard", "judgement": "The Ardennes only works as a recommendation after the page knows the reader's time, arrival mode, tolerance for moving after dinner, and appetite for forest, river, castle, memory, or food.", "rejectIf": "The copy sells forests, castles, villages, rivers, caves, wartime memory, and food as one easy bundle before choosing a base or trip length.", "sourceIds": [ "visit-wallonia", "visit-ardenne", "belgian-train" ] }, { "key": "return-journey-first", "routePath": "/brussels-to-ardennes/", "title": "The return journey decides the day trip", "judgement": "From Brussels, rail-led plans should stay focused and close to a realistic station arrival; deeper bases need overnight margin or a car.", "rejectIf": "The page recommends a deep-Ardennes day while hiding the station-to-base friction and return timing.", "sourceIds": [ "belgian-train", "visit-wallonia" ] }, { "key": "one-night-needs-one-anchor", "routePath": "/one-night-itinerary/", "title": "One night needs one anchor", "judgement": "A good overnight should choose the base first, protect the evening, and use the second morning for one castle, river, cave, hike, or village pair.", "rejectIf": "The itinerary tries to prove value by adding distant stops instead of making the overnight feel calmer.", "sourceIds": [ "visit-wallonia", "visit-ardenne" ] }, { "key": "stay-base-is-the-product", "routePath": "/where-to-stay/", "title": "The stay base is the product", "judgement": "Where to stay decides the valley, evening, and second morning; hotel lists should come after the base type is clear.", "rejectIf": "The page ranks towns without explaining whether the reader needs rail edge, walkable village, or deeper reset base.", "sourceIds": [ "visit-wallonia", "visit-ardenne" ] }, { "key": "transport-honesty", "routePath": "/train-car-logistics/", "title": "Transport honesty beats optimism", "judgement": "Train-first planning is for focused routes; car-first planning is for valley patterns, village pairs, viewpoints, and deeper nature bases.", "rejectIf": "The copy treats every Ardennes plan as equally rail-friendly or uses a car to justify a region-wide loop.", "sourceIds": [ "belgian-train", "visit-wallonia" ] }, { "key": "one-texture-leads", "routePath": "/villages-castles-hikes-rivers/", "title": "Let one texture lead", "judgement": "The strongest Ardennes page chooses a primary texture - village, castle, river, cave, hike, memory, or food - and uses the rest as support.", "rejectIf": "The page makes every category mandatory, turns a landscape into a checklist, or treats wartime memory as casual filler beside castles, caves, and dinner.", "sourceIds": [ "visit-wallonia", "visit-ardenne" ] } ], "editorialQualityRules": [ { "key": "base-before-stops", "title": "Base before stops", "rule": "Every Ardennes recommendation must say where the reader sleeps or returns from before adding extra places.", "failureMode": "A route that jumps between valleys and towns without a clear evening or return logic." }, { "key": "one-anchor", "title": "One anchor per short break", "rule": "A day or one-night route should have one primary reason to travel, with optional secondary texture only if it stays nearby and fits the tone.", "failureMode": "A castle, cave, hike, distant village, memory site, heavy dinner, and late return all treated as equally necessary." }, { "key": "transport-limits", "title": "Transport limits are editorial facts", "rule": "Rail, car, and hybrid plans should be written as different trip shapes, not interchangeable transport notes.", "failureMode": "The page promises easy access while pushing the real transfer burden into the reader's day." } ], "editorialDepthLayers": [ { "key": "regional-promise", "routePath": "/", "title": "The region promise is calm, not coverage", "thesis": "The Ardennes start page should decide whether the reader wants one slower Belgian geography of forest, rivers, castles, food, and memory, not prove that every valley can fit into one break.", "owns": "It owns the first regional fit decision: river town, castle base, forest reset, memory base, food-led overnight, or a simpler city lane elsewhere in Belgium.", "rejects": "It should not sell a total Ardennes checklist before the reader knows trip length, arrival mode, whether they can stay overnight, and how much serious memory context belongs in the trip.", "proof": "A strong start page proves that the Ardennes is the right next product only when the reader accepts slower movement, one anchor, and a landscape that is more than scenery.", "handoff": "Once the fit is clear, the reader should choose arrival logistics, overnight structure, stay base, or activity texture." }, { "key": "arrival-margin", "routePath": "/brussels-to-ardennes/", "title": "Arrival margin decides the Brussels route", "thesis": "The Brussels-to-Ardennes page should begin with return margin because transport pressure decides whether the plan is a day, overnight, or no.", "owns": "It owns the rail-versus-car-versus-sleep decision for readers starting from Brussels.", "rejects": "It should not recommend deep regional routes as day trips when the station gap, evening return, or rural transfer burden is the real constraint.", "proof": "A strong arrival page proves the simplest viable shape before suggesting scenic ambition.", "handoff": "If margin is weak, send readers to a tighter rail city or a focused Dinant plan; if margin exists, send them into base planning." }, { "key": "overnight-sequence", "routePath": "/one-night-itinerary/", "title": "The overnight is a sequence, not a haul", "thesis": "The one-night itinerary should protect the evening and second morning because those are the parts that make the trip feel different from a long day.", "owns": "It owns arrival, settle-in, one evening base, one second-morning anchor, and the return with margin.", "rejects": "It should not add distant stops to prove value or make the overnight feel like two rushed day trips stitched together.", "proof": "A strong one-night page proves that fewer moves produce a richer trip than a larger map loop.", "handoff": "When the sequence needs a base decision, send the reader to stay-base planning before adding more activities." }, { "key": "base-as-editorial-choice", "routePath": "/where-to-stay/", "title": "The base is the editorial choice", "thesis": "Where-to-stay content should make the base perform a job before any hotel-style recommendation appears.", "owns": "It owns the choice between rail edge, walkable village, river rhythm, castle-town identity, and deeper nature reset.", "rejects": "It should not rank towns as abstract best bases without explaining what each base does to dinner, transport, and the second morning.", "proof": "A strong stay page proves that the right base removes more friction than another attraction would add.", "handoff": "After the base is chosen, the activity page can help the reader choose one texture near that base." }, { "key": "logistics-as-editorial-filter", "routePath": "/train-car-logistics/", "title": "Logistics are the editorial filter", "thesis": "The train and car page should treat transport as a content decision, not a practical footnote after the route has already been sold.", "owns": "It owns station feasibility, car value, transfer friction, hybrid caution, and when a plan should become an overnight.", "rejects": "It should not use a car to excuse an overloaded region-wide loop or call every station-adjacent idea easy from Brussels.", "proof": "A strong logistics page proves which plans remain honest after the real transfer is included.", "handoff": "After transport shape is fixed, send readers to the itinerary or stay-base route that matches the constraint." }, { "key": "texture-selection", "routePath": "/villages-castles-hikes-rivers/", "title": "Texture selection gives the trip identity", "thesis": "Villages, castles, hikes, rivers, caves, food, and memory should be treated as competing trip identities, not mandatory checklist categories.", "owns": "It owns the primary texture decision and the nearby secondary texture that can support it without breaking the day or flattening serious memory.", "rejects": "It should not make every category sound essential or pretend that heritage, river scenery, caves, hikes, wartime memory, and dinner all need equal time.", "proof": "A strong activity page proves why one texture leads, which supporting choice can stay nearby, and when memory needs its own tone.", "handoff": "If the chosen texture changes the evening or transport burden, send the reader back to base or logistics planning." } ], "sources": [ { "id": "visit-wallonia", "name": "Visit Wallonia", "url": "https://visitwallonia.com/en-gb" }, { "id": "visit-ardenne", "name": "Visit Ardenne", "url": "https://www.visitardenne.com/en" }, { "id": "belgian-train", "name": "Belgian Train", "url": "https://www.belgiantrain.be/en" }, { "id": "el-premier-registry", "name": "El Premier network registry", "url": "https://elpremier.com/network-registry.json" }, { "id": "commons-ourthe", "name": "Wikimedia Commons image source", "url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Roche-en-Ardenne_-_Le_ch%C3%A2teau_f%C3%A9odal_et_l%27Ourthe.jpg" } ] }