After the pledge, after the silence, after the national anthem, applauses covered for a while the turmoil of road traffic. They seemed to exorcise fear, to galvanize people against the forgetfulness.
21 October, 2020
WORLDS COLLIDE
After the pledge, after the silence, after the national anthem, applauses covered for a while the turmoil of road traffic. They seemed to exorcise fear, to galvanize people against the forgetfulness.
18 October, 2020
Freedom of speech reaffirmed, but speeches inaudible
Angers, Oct. 18 2020.- Around five hundred persons gathered on sunday afternoon on Ralliement square to pay tribute to the memory of Sébastien Paty, the teacher savagely beheaded because of a lesson he gave a few days before about the freedom of speech to secondary school-pupils in a college near Paris.
Unfortunately, they were largely inaudible because the sound system used that sunday was not appropriate to an audience stood up on half of Ralliement square. Several speakers succeeded each other and the crowd reacted sometimes with applauses, sometimes with boos, not because it disagreed what was said, but rather because it disaproved those who acted against the freedom of speech.
No many banners and flags were visible. No shouts were heard. The public seemed to be still under the astonishment of the crime and the infringement of a symbol of the country, the teachers, and above all, freedom of speech, itself an iconic principle of the french revolution.
02 November, 2014
Transfert of the Angers jail, a risky evasion towards contemporary art
The recent decision of the French government to move from Angers to Trélazé the jail is surely a big change for the convicted persons as well as the prison wardens. But it is also a fundamental change for all the inhabitants of the Saint-Michel district as an opportunity for the Angers city council to implement an important change in that area. That place is in in fact a privilegied one because of the proximity of the botanical garden and of the Angers down town. Moreover, in a few years, the Saint-Michel disctrict could be served by the second tramway line.
The Angers town councillors and the mayor promoted the complete transformation of the jail, an ugly building uterring a death atmosphere, in a contemporary art museum during the electoral campaign. Given the poor conditions of the current jail, important works that the city will have to finance, at least for a part, will have to be planned. The conversion of a sinister place into an attractive one, a XIXth century architecture into a facility hosting works of art will be a costly and a risky project because it makes necessary the complete change of the surrounding district.
Given the tough competition between museum dedicated to contemporary art, it is far to be sure that the Angers municipal project will be financially balanced and appropriate to the current difficulties. TheTerra Botnica park has itself been questioned by Maine et Loire décision makers. Another solution could be foreseeable. The complete demolition of the jail and the erection of modern buildings for offices, homes or stores is something also conceivable which could be favourable to the development of the current Angers congress centre. Angers is maybe in need of a contemporary face to be attractive but is a supplementary museum the only option to get that?
04 October, 2014
Jean d'Ormesson in Angers for a message of hope
The Angers Grand théâtre was on October 4th the place where hundreds of the French philosopher Jean d'Ormesson's admirers gathered to get a message of hope. That one, invited by the Richer bookshop to autograph his last novel ("Comme un chant d'espérance") about the origins and the end of the universe, also spoke about his own origins and feelings about the future. Mr. d'Ormesson told the public, through numerous anecdotes, how his life was and still is happy. "I loved my parents and my parents loved me. What a tragedy!", he maliciously said.
If the author has no regret about a kind of "golden past", he gave a message of hope the theatre audience was desperately waiting. Jean d'Ormesson excels in that kind of exercising hihgly appreciated by the public. Litterary quotes, historical exposés and personal souvenirs with scientists, authors and politicians made the conference captivating and, in that kind of situation where the form is as important as the content, the Richer's guest is unsurpassable.
The lecturer was invited to tell his feelings about the current despair of French people. "Debt, unemployment" are some of the numerous difficulties which may explain why French people are hopeless, admitted Jean d'Ormesson who also added that the speed of the change is something rather disorienting : "I am always fascinated about the fact mobile phones took the place of the rosary", what led the audience to approve. In the circumstances, the author was escorted by his daughter, Eloïse, publisher who also detailed what kind of father Jean d'Ormesson was.
He surely is one the intellectual father of contemporary France and surely a very missed character when he will be gone.
30 September, 2014
Letter from the editor
27 September, 2014
The Angers streets as ways of dissatisfaction
Among the numerous questions arisen to the Angers Mayor, Christophe Béchu - already a specificity of his chat with Angers inhabitants on September 23rd compared to the previous sessions - most of them illustrate an interest of the people for the current conditions of the streets, squares and pavements in town. The place they have had in the municipal campaign of Mr. Béchu looks to match a real concern. Many internauts complained last Tuesday about the filthness of pavements, the ageing of some squares (Leclerc) and the sadness of streets even in downtown.
The difficulties experienced for the parking of cars were also an issue. People complained about the lack of parking areas, and the difficulties to use the current parking like the one of the Ralliement square. The exchanges point out a question about the importance of the car traffic which looks to become for some of mayors' interlocutors something preventing them to benefit of their city. An implementation of a second tramway line is waited and there is expectations about the rank of bikes in Angers.The streets were, but from another perspective, an issue for hustle and bustle in Angers. If some residents are worried about the nocturnal nuisances, others feel regrettable the same streets are not sufficiently enlived during the most important events in Angers, like the Accroche-Coeurs.
The talk took place just before the announcement of ThyssenKrupp about the losses of jobs what could explain the absence of debate between the mayor and the citizens about economic subject. But the integration of students in the local employment is more than ever problematic.
25 September, 2014
ThyssenKrupp : Angers goes down one more floor
After the Thomson, Motorola, Act and Packard Bell closures, the industrial weakening of Angers has crossed a new threshold. The Angers ThyssenKrupp Elevator Manufacturing France management has made on September 25 official that more than the half of the factory staff will be laid off before July 2015. That is to say 258 jobs out of 450, 57% exactly! Only about 190 would stay. The sales of the factory have decreased by 26% in six years and are now under 100 millions euros.
Credit Picture : ThyssenKrupp |
For many observers, in spite of the complicated situation of the real estate market nationaly and locally, the measure is a complete surprise. "I am very worried, admitted Marc Goua, Angers Member of parliament. At the national scale we must lower the work costs and become again competitive [The ThyssenKrupp group has another factory in Spain who only work to the third of its capacity]. But, at the local level, the Angers industrial area has a big deficit in visibility. Angers doesn't measure up". For a worse reason, all the flags in tow were put at half-mast the same day.
24 September, 2014
ThyssenKrupp Angers may cut 250 jobs out of 450
Si elle devait être confirmée, la perte de 250 emplois chez ThyssenKrupp, l'une des plus importantes entreprises d'Angers, serait un nouveau séisme après la disparition de Thomson voici deux ans.
If a worsening of the Angers economic situation was predictable after the end of the summer holidays, the bad news arrived from an unexpected sector. Weeks ago, the commercial court had warned that in the construction section, some companies were endangered by a depressed activity. Finally, the most dramatic news for Angers in the economic field comes from one of its flagship companies. The Angers subsidiary of the German ThyssenKrupp company may lay off quite half of its labor force : 250 jobs out of 450. The announcement of the measure is due to be officialized to the staff's representatives on September 25th.
The managers of the company have already met the Angers mayor, Christophe Béchu, and told him their local factory faced "industrial difficulties". Those are of course connected with the depression in the construction sector, in Angers but also in France, at the same time in new buildings and maintenance. One of the two subsidiaries of ThyssenKrupp in Angers, the ThyssenKrupp Ascenseurs France had already experienced a severe "weight-loss programme", with jobs suppression and closures of agencies.Now it would be the turn of ThyssenKrupp Elevator Manufacturing which produces the elevators.
Credit Thyssen Krupp |
The two Angers subsidiaries of ThyssenKrupp are the only one the German group has in France and thir size is quite reduced : worldwide, ThyssenKrupp has around 46,000 employees. The German company has other factories in Germany and Spain. All the production sites would be currently gauged and the German management would plan to close the less profitable. The Angers labor market was already in bad conditions. In Maine-et-Loire, the growth of job seekers was in August beyond 2% over a year. And two years ago, the local economy was hit by the closure of Thomson and is far from having recovered.
22 September, 2014
Angers Heritage Days attracted about 100,000 persons
In spite of a rather autumnal weather on Angers, the Heritage days of September 20 and 21 have recorded a stable attendance in the city and surroundings with a common theme : natural heritage - cultural heritage. The Angers castle was, once again the most visited of the town monuments maybe because that one played the ecological card with the settlements of gardens on the ramparts.
The Maine et Loire préfecture also opened its garden, for long totally hidden to the passer-by. Maybe because of the works of the new building of the Conseil général, those gardens were not in their best appearance : the paths were rather damaged and the scarcity of financial resources is outside, but also inside the state building, visible. If several private mansions were opened to the public, some of them are rather uninteresting given their bad architectural conditions...
But it is above all the museum of natural history which made a hit : the number of visitors was three times more important than the previous edition.That facility hosts since a few weeks a permanent exhibition "The human zoo" about the exhibitions, in Angers, of people coming from Africa, Asia and America in order to be exposed at the sight of European people believing they were upper. The Ronceray Abbey and the Grand théâtre were some of the most visited.
More than 70,000 people in Angers and 24,000 outside the city took part to the event.
20 September, 2014
The Maine-et-Loire general council faces "serious" financial difficulties
The Maine-et-Loire general council faces serious financial difficulties. According to his president, Christian Gilet, "In the current conditions, the 2015 budget is infeasible. In order to balance it, we should next year increase taxes in unreasonables proportions, we should halt the payment of the active solidarity allowance, what we will not do of course". The revenues of the department authority will decrease by 12 millions and its expenses will increase by 10
millions on next year, precisely because of the rise of that allocation since last September 1st.
In order to fill the gap, 22 millions euros, Mr. Gillet announces the general council has to save money in the capital as well as the operating budgets. Regarding the last one, in which the wages of the staff sum up 100 millions euros, "The retirements, about 15 to 20 persons per year, will not be replaced". But that will not be sufficient, the president says the authority has no other choice but to borow money by 9 millions euros which will burden its current debt : 453 millions euros. It has been calculated that, while a few years ago, the previous debt would have absorbed 8 yearly budgets, the total repayment of the debt would today absorb 12 of those.
In order to get cash, the general council is selling all kinds of assets (mansions, woodlands, equities). It plans to gather in a single place departments currently scattered all over Angers (with the new building in Foch boulevard). Even the finance department is not sheltered in the general council but in a bank, for 200 000 euros per year. The authority is not anymore able to support some of its major operations. Anjou Velo Vintage (1.2 million euros) will have to be managed with Angers and so could leave Saumur. The 2015 edition may start in the Terra Botanica park, itself in difficult conditions. "If we had to launch it now, I am not sure we would do so", precises Mr. Gilet who also confesses : "I hadn't thougth the situation was so serious".
18 September, 2014
Independance from England, Scotland marked a point near Angers
While the results of the referendum in Scotland about independance from UK were, on the evening of September 18th, largely unknown, Angers might remember that his independance from English domination is partly due to... the Scottish army. Less than 600 years ago, in March 1421, the city was besieged by an English army sent in France to fight the dauphin Charles, future Charles VII, who wanted to get back French territories from the kingdom of England.
After that army failed to take possession of Angers, that one directed towards Tours on the Roman way going by Baugé. About 3,000 men had rest there. They caught a Scottish prisoners of whom they learnt that an army of 5,000 men, French and Scottish was in the surroundings. Charles had concluded an alliance with Scotland, at that time independant from England, to reconquer his French
kingdom. With only 1,500 men, because most of the redoutable English archers were involved in the looting of Baugé in order to feed, the English commander nevertheless decided to attack the French and Scottish army. But it was a stunning defeat : 1,000 English were killed and 500 prisoners. After that, the English withdrew in Normandy.
It is said that the Scottish present in Baugé would attended an original game, called the "chôle". The game was played in the streets, on the ramparts and in the fields in and around the towns with curbed sticks and elliptical wooden balls. The essence of the game is to reach a target in a number of strokes decided upon beforehand but with not fixed routes. The play would have been imported to Scotland and would have became the ancestor of... golf.
14 September, 2014
Religious activists go on stage during Les Accroche-Coeurs festival
One of the numerous shows of the street art festival, Les Accroche-Coeurs, has triggerred incidents from religious activists on September 13th, which led Angers town hall to cancel the play in open air circumstances, then to authorize it in a closed space the following day. "Squames", a three hour show played by the Kumulus company, has been interrupted by twelve muslims integrists brandishing the Kuran and shouting insults like "impure", "racists", "bitches" and "little prick" leading the actors to suspend the play. After the decision of cancellation made public, the other street art companies (about 60) taking part to the festival announced their decision to stop immediately their participation, what would have purely and solely ended the 2014 edition of Les Accroche-Coeurs.
Credit Pictures : Kumulus |
In the end, the show was performed on Sunday 14 in the Le Quai theatre. This is the first time, such an incident occurs during Les Accroche-Coeurs. But a few years ago, another show had triggered criticism from Catholic people.
13 September, 2014
A nice cup of twinning
More than an anniversary, the celebrations of the half century of relationships between Angers and several cities partners from Europe and Africa were an opportunity to a relaunch. "The current period is not propitious to strengthen links. Nevertheless, given the criticisms generated by the economic crisis and ta focusing on one's inner self, more than ever that task is necessary", reminded the Angers mayor, Christophe Béchu, to the Bamako, Haarlem, Osnabrück, Pisa, Södertälje and Wigan delegations gathered in the Terra Botanica park on September 14th. The Wigan representative, who detailed her trip in Angers was the first one, even added that "We are in a test period for our people".
If, on many issues, differences will appear in policies implemented by the previous and the current city council, in the field of twinnings, no such split is foreseeable. And the successive Angers decision makers were all praised for their part in what is today considered as an achievement.
Some of those guests reported the questions of their own fellow citizens. "There is a scepticism regarding Europe which goes far beyond the European currency. So our new challenge is to find a good basis for the European project", pointed out an Haarlem representative. Sometimes, symbols appears important in the pursuit of the twinning scheme. The Osnabruk delegate reported that "dead trees where marks of the first WW bullets were still visible have been used by her city as panels for pacifist sentences extrated from the "All quiet on the Western front" book of the German Erich Maria Remarque and will be used in the same way until 2018".
The Bamako spokesperson illustrated through daily achievements and the involvement of numerous Angers communities, how the twinning with the french city, launched in 1974 by Christophe Béchu's (conservative) predecessor, the Socialist Jean Monnier, was a success. Those experiences may trigger new developments. The Södertälje mayor, whose city is close to Angers through the Scania trucks factory, announced a project in the field of education through the settlement of a school in Angers.
The Angers town council to the test of finance
10 September, 2014
An opponent of the former Angers municipal majority will take office as ombudsman
The recent designation of the second ombudsman of Angers marks the will of the Angers city council to save money. After the first one, Henri Poizat, left his office a few months ago, it has been decided that his successor would be in charge of the trouble-shooter tasks on behalf the Angers town hall and the Maine-et-Loire general council. That will reduce the expenses of the city itself and will reduce those of the department which also had its own ombudsman.
But it marks also a political gesture. The new holder of the office, Hervé Carré, was a former general councillor of Maine-et-Loire between 1998 and 2001 as well as a former deputy-mayor of Angers under Jean-Claude Antonini's term. Mr. Carré, first member of Mr. Antonini's majority was later dismissed by that one because he expressed dissident opinion. Mr. Carré has no political mandate. He will start his job next October.
That nomination may have two meanings. First the share of an ombudsman between two authorities, very close in political trend, could be the announcement of more systematic pooling. Recently the president of the general council made clear that he wished joint efforts in order to promote the Terra Botanica parl. Secondly, Hervé Carré, who had be a close ally of the former Angers socialist mayor, Mr. Antonini,was considered by him later (like Jean-Luc Rotureau), as an ennemy. The come back to a public office of an foe of the previous mayor is the clue that a page has been turned.
08 September, 2014
The political end of summer has rung
If a few days ago, Angers inhabitants resumed their work, their studies or their household tasks, the city representatives are starting their come back at the front or the stage. Meetings in Angers Loire Métropole, presse conference by the Angers mayor, opinion colums in the medias and, above all, polemic about the 2014 season of Terra Botanica are the main clues of the political end of summer break.
At Angers Loire Métropole, it seems Christophe Béchu, its president, has suceeded in keeping that authority on technical issues. The next meeting will be dedicated to higher education and researh through allocations to the two universties as well as high schools. But it is not sure things will go along that way. The Alm authority has recently started to buy houses located near the Biopole plant. "We do not implement expropriations. We buy out those homes at the prices of the Service des domaines", Mr. Béchu points out.
After that one was criticized through the Terra Botanica, Biopole could also be in the hot seat. A report has been made about the running of the facility but has not be made public. It will surely at the agenda of a next debatge at Angers Loire Métropole as weel as the association of tat authority and the city to the botanic park.
07 September, 2014
Angers will not probably linked to Linky
The restarting of the Thomson site is not established. The place, supported by the former Angers city council to manufacture the clever meter Linky on behald the French electricity network Erdf, is very probably moved aside. The meter will be assembled in Dinan, a Brittany city. The Linky meter transmits automatically to the customer his electricity consumption.
For Angers, the disappointment is real. The Thomson industrial site located on Birgé boulevard is totally deserted since the autumn 2012. Even if the 35 millions meters were not due to be produced in a single place, it would have be highly appreciated to get, at least, a share of that market estimated at 250 millions euros. The consequences for employment are up to 10,000 jobs in France.
Credit Pictures : Erdf and Angers Loire Métropole |
For Angers and Angers Loire Métropole, it is gradually more and more difficult to going on with an industrial wilderness of such importance. The remoteness of an answer is not without consequences for the unemployment and other economic sectors, like the real-estate more and more depressed in Angers.
05 September, 2014
The 2014 touristic season noticed an English sunbeam
The comments of Angers and Anjou professionals of tourism about the summer season are rather satisfactory, in spite of a very adverse meteorology. Sixty per cent of those assess that the activity was at least steady or favourable. If the French tourists were less numerous than predicted, on the contrary the foreign customers were back and above all, those coming from... England. Maybe because of the rainy weather!
That one has mainly taken advantaged the uban sites. With 34,000 visitors, the five Angers museums recorded an increase of the visits by 4%. Unfortunately, the trend is quite different in the Terra Botanica park. For 2014, that one welcomed (until now) 130,000 paying visitors, a figure clearly below those of 2011 (280,000) and 2012 (170,000). while the pivotal point would be at 230,000 charged admissions. The owner of the park, the Maine-et-Loire general council made clear that changes are underway in order to reach the objective of 250,000 paying visitors.
Its president, Christian Gillet, wishes that the Angers city and the Angers Loire Métropole authority be shareholders of Terra Botanica. "They were absolutely absent, what is really a nonsense", he said. Mr. Gillet wants to see the Anjou tourism operators to implement a communication campaign in Paris and somewhere else. Given the latest figures of the Anjou tourism observers, that one should be directed to English speaking people.
But the Terra Botanica website is only written in French...
04 September, 2014
The Accroche-Coeurs festival loses its soul
The Accroche-Coeurs festival, a cultural event which celebrates the come-back of Angers inhabitants to work, school or home, will also mark the final way out of the Company Jo Bithume. Among the legitimate and majority reasons of festival goers to be happy, that closure could be one reason for them to be sad.The Accroche-Coeurs will be the "farewell tour" of the band, indicates that one on the Angers city website.
"Farewell tour, with our brass band always dressed up, but even more off the wall. With laugh always, but also with a pinch of tears, a touch of sentiment to celebrate and share that moment with the public of the street, of our street, of your street", say, with surely a heartache, the Jo Bithume artists who will perform on September 14 th at midday on Savatte embankment and at 8 pm on Debré mall.