All Angers moves : from the trail to the trial

The final trial called "The Saint-Maurice challenge" which ends the yearly event "All Angers moves" is a sport competition but has something more than a simple, but violent, physical  effort. The Saint-Maurice uphill slope consists in a succession of levels of a dozen meters each, every level being separated from the others by two or three steps linking the Jean Turc square, at Maine river level, and the Saint-Maurice cathedral, about a fifty meters higher. 

The place has something symbolic. The competitors must climb the stairs in the shortest time. The bests do it in less than 30 seconds but come back from the top to the bottom silently and step by step. The crowd, gathered on both sides of the slope, encourages the competitors in their ordeal from the ground to the highest Angers monument. If the city, as many other French towns, has recorded a drecrease in religious attendance, the cathedral still rallies those who continue to observe the Sunday services.

The Saint-Maurice challenge closed that annual event dedicated to a meeting between Angers inhabitants and city sports clubs around trails in and around the town. After a never-ending gloomy weather, "All Angers moves", under the sun and a mild temperature, gave hope to people, even if, after the "Saint-Maurice challenge", it is not sure many of them went in the cathedral to light a church candle. They should have do so. Saint-Maurice, from his height, will judge...