The Ultimate Guide to Angers

Jennifer Ladonne explores Angers, where she discovers a Loire garden of earthly delights…

A famous 16th-century poet called Joachim du Bellay extolled “la douceur Angevine” – the sweetness of life in Angers and the Anjou region, a sentiment as true today as ever. A thriving university town and cultural powerhouse, Angers regularly tops France’s most liveable cities list. Its placement at the confluence of the Maine and Loire rivers ensures that luminosity and gentle atmosphere for which the Loire is famous.

It’s a landscape ripe for enjoyment: cycling, hiking, boating and lazy afternoons of relaxed dining in one of Angers’ laid-back riverside guinguettes are a way of life here. Set in the midst of a rich fluvial plain, the countryside bordering Angers is resplendent with orchards, fruit and vegetable gardens, vast flower beds a local industry and acre upon acre of vineyards.

Angers bears the traces of its rich history as the historic seat of the Plantagenet dynasty and the Dukes of Anjou. The royal residence, the Château d’Angers, is an excellent place to start your visit. The striking medieval fortress, built in striated layers of native black slate and white tuffeau, harbours a graceful Gothic chapel, formal gardens, sculpted hedges and fortified walls, offering sweeping views of the city and river.

But Angers’ greatest treasure is lodged in a state-of-the-art gallery in the belly of the château. The Apocalypse Tapestry, the world’s oldest and largest narrative tapestry, depicts the Book of Revelations as told in wondrous detail by St John the Divine. The epic 103m tapestry unfolds in 70 double-hung panels in a hushed, twilit corridor, its monsters and angels, saints and sinners shimmering in glorious detail. The artwork, commissioned by the Duke of Anjou in 1375 from a workshop in Paris, took seven years to complete. Although it was duly celebrated in its time, it ended up in pieces, repurposed as rugs, cattle warmers and garden tarps until it was painstakingly restoration, the graceful symmetry of its Renaissance towers and the elegance of its Gothic figures remain visible. Inside, you’ll find lovely 13th- to 15th-century stained glass windows, a gorgeously carved Baroque altar canopy and an imposing organ.

RETAIL THERAPY

Nearby, the Musée des Beaux Arts d’Angers’ collection is admired for its French masters and a fine collection of Italian and Flemish paintings, with a section on the history of Angers, especially its distilleries (we’ll get to those). The lower floor, devoted to notable contemporary works, was exhibiting a thrilling installation of digital artworks by French artist Miguel Chevalier at the time of my visit.

The museum’s café-restaurant is a handy place to stop for a good coffee and a pastry or a gourmet meal before heading to the Galerie David d’Angers. The Angers native’s realist sculptures, found in the Louvre and the Panthéon in Paris, are housed in the 12th-century Toussaint Abbey, retrofitted with a soaring glass ceiling that floods the space with light. A two-minute detour up Rue Toussaint to Place Sainte-Croix leads to Maison d’Adam, the city’s best preserved medieval half-timbered house, covered in carved biblical sculptures, with some naughty ones thrown in.

You can do a little shopping one street over on Rue Saint-Aubin, which is home to quality French chains and Benoît Chocolats, where you can buy Angers-born chocolatier Anne Benoit’s famous Caramandes, melt-in-the-mouth triangles of chocolate-enrobed praline, as well as other confections, pastries and the delicious rum-soaked gâteaux Nantais. Across the street at Cave Saint-Aubin, stock up on Angers’ best selection of local natural, organic and biodynamic wines.

RAISE A GLASS

For a firsthand taste of Angers’ iconic beverage, head (17 minutes by bus or seven minutes by car) to the Carré Cointreau where the famous orange-flavoured liqueur is made in a surprisingly compact and welcoming distillery. A guided tour takes you past a century and a half of advertising poster art, through the giant copper alambic stills, to a chic tasting room for a refreshing Cointreau cocktail. Afterwards, you can choose from a tempting selection of Cointreau-spiked delicacies and speciality bottles to take home.

In 1885, pharmacist Émile Giffard invented Menthe-Pastille, a refreshing elixir made from mint essential oil. You can taste this and an impressive array of liqueurs – with and without alcohol – distilled from every imaginable herb, fruit and flower, including the famous Guignolet, a luscious ruby-red liqueur made from wild Anjou cherries. These and scores of other equally delicious liqueurs can be sampled and purchased at L’Espace Menthe-Pastille.

If wine is more your thing, you’ve come to the right place. Among the Anjou region’s 19 or so appellations, elegant Savennières, a light but characterful white wine produced in small quantities from the Chenin Blanc grape, is particularly prized. A few miles outside Angers in the charming village of Savennières, set on the Loire River, Château d’Epiré welcomes visitors for tastings in a 12th-century Romanesque church that also houses its wine cellars.

While in Angers, experiencing one or two of the city’s 20 guinguettes is a must. At these lazy riverside cafés, immortalised by the Impressionists, you can savour a hearty French meal and a glass of wine on a summer terrace and dance the evening away to live music. The Destination Angers website offers a handy list and map of all the nearby guinguettes in Béhuard, Bouchemaine (at the confluence of the Maine and Loire) and charming Île Saint-Aubin.

The islands offer a taste of the vast natural resources just minutes outside the city. Île Saint-Aubin, lodged between three rivers to the north of the city, is nicknamed the green lung of Angers for its untouched nature and is still reached the old-fashioned way by a chain-pulled ferry. To the south, the Île Béhuard is home to a charming village (inhabited only in summer and autumn, as rising Loire waters often restrict access in winter) and the 11th-century Nôtre-Dame de Béhuard church, a pilgrimage site known for its eponymous black Madonna. Both islands offer plenty of wild nature to be enjoyed via a circuit of hiking trails.

Angers is a major hotspot for cycling, served by the Loire à Vélo route, a principal cycling route of France and Europe which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, as well as 1,000km of gravel routes. Angers’ yearly Nature is Bike festival draws cyclists from near and far for a four-day celebration of biking in nature, with forums, workshops, fun events and leisure activities for cyclists of all ages.

Angers is also ideal for walking, with a largely pedestrianised centre and much to see by just wandering. In the city centre you’ll notice some Art Deco buildings, particularly the mosaic-clad Maison Bleue, and on Saturdays, Angers’ bustling local produce market takes place on the Place Leclerc, while Place Imbach across the street often has a flea market with some antiques. However you choose to meander through this delightful Loire city, there’s always a hidden corner or a charming riverside guinguette waiting to be discovered.

ANGERS ESSENTIALS

GETTING THERE

BY AIR

Fly from London Gatwick to Nantes Atlantique airport with easyJet; it’s 40 minutes from Nantes to Angers by TGV.

www.nantes.aeroport.fr/en

BY TRAIN AND CAR

Angers is about a 90-minute direct TGV train ride from Paris Montparnasse, or a three-hour drive (185 miles) from Paris.

WHERE TO EAT AND STAY

Château de Noirieux

Just outside Angers in a pastoral setting, the romantic Château de Noirieux, surrounded by a lovely park with a pool and spa, emcompasses several historic buildings dating from the 15th to 17th centuries. Here you’ll find deluxe rooms in an elegant ivy-clad manor house and one of the best restaurants around.

chateaudenoirieux.com/en

L’Attilio restaurant at Châteaux de Noirieux

Markus Ideally situated in the centre of town, this discreet 4-star boutique hotel has everything you need for a serene and comfortable stay: spacious, well-appointed rooms, a quality café-restaurant, a lovely outdoor terrace, and a genuinely warm welcome.

www.markus.fr/en

Une Fille et Des Quilles

At this chic, loft-like wine bar and restaurant, with a spacious terrace, you can dine on delicious seasonal dishes and savour a wine list of 1,000 wines, with choices from the Loire and afar. There are plenty of options by the glass, too.

www.facebook.com/unefilleetdesquilles

La Réserve For a meal with a view, this buzzy restaurant offers a spacious dining room and outdoor terrace on the top of the Théatre Le Quai with sweeping vistas of Angers and beyond.

www.lareserveangers.fr

TOURIST OFFICE

www.destination-angers.com

From France Today Magazine

Lead photo credit : Vue_aerienne_d_Angers_a_l_automne-Copyright-Alexandre_Lamoureux-Destination_Angers