The Angers Atoll : new outside, deja vu inside

A couple of hours walk in the new commercial park L'Atoll, near Angers, let an ambivalent feeling. On one side, the egg-shape of the complex, its outer translucent membrane, the fluidness of the acesses give a favourable a priori. At the way out of the blue underground parking lots, the sight embraces a circular park in which the vehicles are almost invisible (they will be invisible later, once trees and hedges will have sprouted). In the center of that green there are the restaurants for consumers not stuffed with purchases.

One at the level of the stores, some visitors could be a little bit disappointed : except for Alinéa, there is no real new brand. All the stores gathered in L'Atoll were already in Angers or in its commercial zones. So the park could have only displaced stores leaving empty spaces in other parts of the town. The second uneasiness comes from the quality of the goods for sale in the stores. There is no in L'Atoll the same touch, the same charm of shopping in down town. It's rather the extension of the superstores way of  shopping.

Another bad feeling comes from the bad-mannered behaviour of people for parking their cars : because of the crowd, all were occupying the cycling lanes and the pavements. During that time, down town was quiet.