Economy and employment : lack of means and a top-priority for a mayor

A fact has just illustrated, once again, the narowness of influence from local represen-tatives on economical issues. After the closure of Angers Technicolor, suspicions about the viability of the Ardoisières d'Angers and rumors of relocation abroad of a call center, another major company of Angers, ThyssenKrupp Ascenseurs France, has been affected by the cut of seven jobs out of 153 all over France. If the number looks low in comparison with the total loss recently decided by the group and with the number of employees in Angers region, it should trigger reflections about the ways to strengthen the economic make-up because, the lift manufacture gives jobs to hundred of persons in Angers and so should be followed as a "key account".

The recent statements of some of the candidates to the next municipal elections make clear that none of them

considers he has the power and the resources to act in place of managers. Frédéric Béatse, as well as Christophe Béchu (the other candidates like Jean-Luc Rotureau didn't express until now an opinion about such a topic) made clear that the mayor had no influence on employment. But both of them admit that a mayor is in charge of the economic competitiveness of his area.


According to Mr. Béatse, Angers must work on the quality of life because it is a useful asset to attract com-panies and talented per-sons (transport facilities, cooperation between education, research and industrry in some key-fields like the vegetable and the electronic). On the other side, Mr. Béchu thinks that, through their policy, "public representatives are not without influence about the ways companies are attracted and hosted". But if both of them are eager to enhance the economic performance of Angers, it could be useful to entrust to somebody a mission regarding economic development inside the next Angers city council. Until now, no one was in charge.

Candidates urge Angers inhabitants to think about municipal elections

There is at least one issue on which two of the Angers mayor office candidates agree : the participation of inhabitants to the next municipal elections. Frédéric Béatse and Christophe Béchu included each one on their own website an appeal to electors to register themselves on the electoral roll while Angers city launched a campaign to awake people to do so. But between the enrollment on the electoral registers and the effective votes, there is a margin and probably a loss of participants these candidates, and others, will attempt to fill in the months to come.

A split appears between them regarding the nature of the vote. The conservative candidate is on a rather usual mood, saying that "vote is a right, but also a civic duty" while his socialist opponent doesn't refer to that "civic duty". "By voting, I choose and I, especially do not let others choose for me. This is an act of utmost importance", says Mr. Béatse, "importance" and "duty" having not the same meaning. But, always in the same field, another difference appears. Mr. Béatse says that he is "supporter of the right to vote in municipal elections for foreign people residing [in France] for ten years" while Mr Béchu doesn't express himself about such a topic.

But, where Mr. Béchu does not comment the political consequences of a possible abstention, Mr. Béatse looks to awake people about what is politically at risk : "abstention is a danger : for democracy, for the left. In every election, high abstention rates benefit to right and even more to the extreme right". But the two candidates agree on the fact that, once the elections are over, "the final decision [about the management of the city] belongs to representatives", reminds Frédéric Béatse while for Christophe Béchu, "The sharing and the exchanges of views [between voters and representatives] do not distort authority and decision-making". According to figures published by Angers city, the abstention rate for the firstrun of the 2008 municipal elections was 41% and for the second run 36,5%.

"Pink Cancer"

Is it possible to awake public awareness about a serious issue through a light approach? That was the gamble of students members of the Association corporative des étudiants en pharmacie d'Angers (Acepa) who organized a flashmob on October 28th on Ralliement square about the breast cancer. That disease affects many women in France. In 2005, almost 50 000 persons suffered such a pathology, one of the most important figures in Europe.

Credit pictures : Acepa Facebook page

Dressed in pink colors, a hundred of these students, braving the drop of temperatures and the switch to winter time, heated the atmosphere on the rythms of a lively music. That event is part of an initiative of the Acepa untitled "Pink October" in partnership with the Ligue contre le cancer. During ten minutes, pharmacy, midwife and medecine students dansed on a choregraphy from Henri Fiévet, a student in charge of the evening.

The gathering, attended by pedestrians and customers from the terraces of the square, was designed to "visually mark people", said its organizers and will be soon broacasted by social nets. This is the second animation of "Pink October" in Angers that month. A fortnight days ago, about 1 000 students gathered near Balzac park about the same topic.

Demonstrators' misconduct overshadows the scheme of a new jail

The Angers supporters of the mouvement "La manif pour tous", who came on October 25th to attend the visit of the justice minister, Christiane Taubira, discredited themselves and maybe the cause they defend. Gathered in front the justice hall, demonstrators, some of them going hand in hand with children, shouted their opposition to the law opening the mariage to persons of the same sex but above all insulted Mrs Taubira in totally misplaced words, which could be considered as an offense. A lot of French medias dedicated coverage to the incident. That one overshadowed the reason for which Mrs Taubira's visit was expected.

Previously, several Angers and Maine-et-Loire representatives made appeals to the government in order to launch a reflection about the necessity of a new prison. The minister, who had already choosen to renovate the current penitenciary, built at the beginning of the French second empire, finally accepted to study in the weeks to come other solutions and, among them, the erection of a new building. But the costs are not the same : while the improvement works sum up to € 500 000, the scheme of a new jail would involve millions of euros. Christiane Taubira (eventually irritated by the demonstrators) pointed out that "the question was not to please local representatives".

In a press release, the leaders of La manif pour tous 49 considered the insults pronouced by a child "were not representative of the peaceful mobilization". These statements "if they had been directly witnessed, would have led [those leaders] to react immediately stopping such words to be said". But according to witnesses, the dishonest words were far to be criticized by the demonstrators.

The Angers communists worried about the propects of municipal elections

The Angers supporters of the communist party look worried about the prospects of the municipal elections for the left in the city. After a gathering of its members, a majority of them, 31 out of 48, choose to deal an alliance with the socialist party. "We can't take the risk to see Christophe Béchu (the conservative candidate, member of the Union pour la majorité présidentielle) to get the Angers town hall", said Alain Pagano, leader of the communist supporters in Angers.

That internal vote should be followed and confirmed by an official one due to take place soon in favor of a common route with Frédéric Béatse, the socialist candidate to Angers mayor office and current Angers mayor. But the communist party does not represent all left forces. The local members of theleft party, led at the national level by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a fierce opponent to the current socialist government, would not agreee such an alliance with socialists at a local level.

An inventory of the agreements on the left side allows to notice that, presently, the socialist candidate has got the partnership of Europe Ecologie Les Verts and would get the help of the communist party. Other alliances with different movement are possible, but until now, not sure : the left party, some ecologists, the far left and, eventually, Jean-Luc Rotureau's supporters. On the right, Mr. Béchu has got the support of the Modem (centre) but which has to be confirmed by the national decision-makers of that movement. And the local supporters of a,other centrist party, the Udi, have set conditions to an agreement with Christophe Béchu while an agreement with the Angers Front national members has never been mentioned.

But the political party are not owners of their voters. Those, in spite of instructions, may decide in accordance with a logic of revenge and not of project. So nothing can be taken for granted. And national circumstances could moreover have a great influence.

The centrists of UDI set their conditions to Christophe Béchu for a rally

Some of the decision-makers of the Union des démocrates indépendants (Udi) Angers section launched on October 25th an appeal to Christophe Béchu, the conservative candidate to Angers mayor office, to build with him a "large rally" in anticipation of the 2014 municipal elections. Curiously, the leader of the Udi in Angers, Laurent Gérault, town councillor, and invested by Udi as candidate, so challenger of Christophe Béchu next year, hasn't signed that appeal coming from three other persons in power in the local section. Why?

Mr. Gérault is said to endorse that offer "which comes from the top", he pointed out, but which nevertheless contradicts the fact Udi had previously choosen him to lead the battle for Angers mayor office. "We throw a stone in the courtyard of Christophe Béchu", said Mr. Gérault who, logically, hopes this one will answer. The Angers centrists look now torn in two parts. The local members of the Moouvement des démocrates (Modem), who recently choose to gather with Christophe Béchu, were later called to order by their national responsibles. Those said such a decision had to be made up by the national level of the mouvement. The Udi would be in a different situation with the mouvement, at a national level which demands an alliance with Béchu, while his local leader, Laurent Gérault, is apparently reluctant.

The press release mentions "quarrels of persons which do not measure up to what is at stake" and asks "solemnly" Mr. Béchu "to really build that rally". The Udi do not want to be "under the care" of the Union pour la majorité présidentielle, Mr. Béchu's political party.

Warnings about the jail of dangers

Christiane Taubira - Credit : ministry of justice 

The travel of the minister of justice, Christiane Taubira, in Angers, in order to visit the new installations of the justice hall gave to Christophe Béchu, as Maine-et-Loire senator, an opportunity to draw her attention about the current conditions of the prison. That one, built in 1856 (2nd empire...), is regularly the target of critics from Maine-et-Loire left and right representatives, Corinne Bouchoux herself senator, Marc Goua, member of parliament and Mr. Béchu. In a question to Mrs. Taubira, that one points out"the necessity to built as soon as possible a new penitenciary on Angers territory".

Credit picture : Corinne Bouchoux's website

Mr. Béchu and Mrs Bouchoux, the first conservative and the second ecologist, describe the place as "dilapidated", offering "undeserving conditions of detention" and "permanently overpopulated" : the building would host 400 inmates while it had been devised for the half. The government answered to Christophe Béchu that "recent works of improvement had been implemented" and "contributed to improve the life conditions of the inmates" but didn't talk about a new penitenciary, "the only way to solve the central problem : the over-population".

Credit : Christophe Béchu

A scheme about the transfer of the Angers prison was discussed in 2010 (as in the case of the central police station) in another location around Angers. Trélazé of which Mr. Goua is the mayor had been foreseen. According to Mrs Bouchoux who visited the Angers penitenciary last year, "a general awareness of the situation is essential".

Economy, Frédéric Béatse unveils his method : dialog and stability with the local businessmen

In a long article published in his blog, Frédéric Béatse, current Angers mayor and candidate to his own succession next year, discloses the assets he bets on to boost the city economy as well as his method to do so. "A city where life is nice is a strong advantage to win over investors and to attract talented persons", he explains. Regarding the strenghs of the local economy, Mr. Béatse reminds that "some top priority sectors have been defined in cooperation with managers". If the mayor doesn't detail the nature of those sectors, two of them are already public : the vegetable and the electronic, both of them provided with a structure, Vegepolys for the first and the electronic campus for the other.

The method in which Frédéric Béatse believes relies on a dialog between the city and the economy represen-tatives. "Only such a dialog is able to set up a safe and stable context allowing businessmen to invest and create jobs", he writes, pointing out that an economic development master plan which is implementable during the next four years has been devised with the economic decision-makers. The mayor indicates that he will have to come back about the issue "in the weeks to come because economy and jobs are my top-priorities for the next whole term" while the last figures of unemployment notice a new worsening of the situation with an increase of 9% of the number of
joblesses between september 2012 and september 2013 in Maine-et-Loire.

Credit pictures : Angers city and Frédéric Béatse's blog

That leads the candidate to tell to the inhabitants his vision of the mayor duties. After he said that he consi-dered "a mayor is not a manager and a manager is not a mayor", Frédéric Béatse insists on the fact he is neither the legislator. Recognizing that "the globalisation has considerably increased the competition with our economy", the candidate thinks that "the part of the mayor is to gather the most favourable conditions for the success of local companies".

Angers Télé in the middle of an electoral controversy

Angers Télé, the local tv channel launched last February, is unintentionally at the core of a controversy led by Angers Info, a website contents aggregator. According to that website, the ads about Angers Télé, visible on electronic billboards JCDecaux, whose presence has been challenged by ecologist supporters, would be illegal. The advertisements, "Find the essentials news of Angers and its urban area [on] Angers Télé", with, at the bottom of the boards, the logo of Angers city, would break the law, suggests Angers Info. According to the French electoral code "On the first day of the sixth month before the month in which general elections must be carried out, no advertising campaign about achievements or the management of an authority may be organized on the territory of the authority concerned by the ballot", refers the website.

Given the first run of the municipal elections is due to take place on March 23rd, according to Angers Info, Frédéric Béatse's administration would contravene with law. Moreover, the advertisements would not be paid by Angers city, neither by Angers Télé to JCDecaux. According to the website, the company would offer to the city uncharged advertisements in exchange of its authorization to set up about 40 electronic billboards in town (but that one has just said it will transfer some of them in downtown). "Here we ask the question of whether or not the angevin channel is an action of the city and its mayor and, if so, can the authority promote [Angers Télé] on billboards during the electoral campaign?", writes Angers Info.

Another local information website, Angers Mag, recently disclosed that Angers Télé would be the target of "false informations about [its] financial situation" because of the electoral campaign. "Angers Télé is not the mayor's channel", points out Jean-Claude Bachelot, chairman of the company which runs the local television whose most of stock capital is owned by Angers city and Angers Loire Métropole. That one hopes that the elections will boost its audience which, currently, is unknown.

The municipal campaign is becoming tougher

Credit : maine-et-loire.gouv.fr

The debate between the two main challengers of the Angers municipal elections is becoming tougher. The recent verbal exchange about the central police station is an illustration of that. After a visit, on October 22nd, the director of the French police announced that the Angers police station, located, Dupetit-Thouars street, will not be transferred but renovated. If that news is a good news, it constituted nevertheless an issue to start hostilities. And Christophe Béchu pulled out first.

"The annoncement of the renovation of the police station goes in the direction I always recom-mended", said Mr. Béchu adding that, "if that is a good news for the policemen and the inhabitants", nevertheless, he "deplores the lateness of the scheme because of the [Angers] town council mistake" that one having suggested that the police station could be settled in the Saint-Serge district "on a floodplain". Adressed to Frédéric Béatse, visibly concerned not to get into the argument, it is Jean-Claude Bachelot, deputy-mayor in charge of town planning, who replied.

Mr. Bachelot

After that one reminded that the file was quite old, he pointed out that Frédéric Béatse talked about that topic with the new prefect and with the French prime minister last July adding that the city was indeeed available to earmark a field to that building. "But that field is not located in a foodplain", said Mr. Bachelot who denouced the fact that "the Ump candidate to municipal elections uses every opportunity to create controversy where there is none".

The cost of the renovation would sum up to € 10 millions and nothing has been said about the date of the start of the works. The real good news will come later...

Economical proposals of candidates to Angers mayor office about the ways to boost local economy

Apparently, the audience at the meeting about the ways to boost Angers economy, which took place at Essca on October 22nd, left the place a little bit disappointed. The two candidates to the Angers mayor office, Frédéric Béatse and Christophe Béchu, didn't disclosed clear means to stimulate growth and employment. It is obvious that their silence was in part due to pure politician strategy. But they didn't say openly they had the legal authority to do so.

But the public got nevertheless the feeling that a confrontation was about to surge with Mr. Béchu making cutting remarks. In front of managers questioning the Angers and Maine-et-Loire representatives about the tax level, the president of the Conseil général noticed that a mayor has no room for manoeuvre in that field, a point on which Frédéric Béatse reminded that he"didn't raise tax rates". But should a city have an economic strategy? According to Mr. Béchu, whose answer is yes, the Angers strategy is not sufficiently ambitious and the single denomination, Angers Loire Valley, is not enough. Mr. Béatse would make confidence to the Angers ability to be distinct from the other cities reminding that "a mayor is not a manager and a manager is not a mayor". If Mr. Béchu looks to be eager to tackle head-on the attractiveness of the territory, his challenger believes the city must work on its quality of life what may give interest to the Angers area for companies.

Others invited of the event, Paul Raguin, chairman of Loire Electronic Valley and Hervé Tréhard, president of the Angers commercial court, were, in opposed directions, more fixed in their opinions. For the first, "what is happening here doesn't occur nowhere. Loire Electronique Valley is gathering 200 companies which total up 50 000 jobs. And we can multiply by three that figure". The second reminded that "the breakage of important companies" deserved more than an electoral debate. Jean-Luc Rotureau, a third candidate to the mayor office, urged the different actors "to stick together" for the destiny of the local economy. But during an electoral campaign, that seems unlikely.

Angers on Tf1, number one for seniors

The Tf1 television channel has dedicated part of its news bulletin of October 22th to Angers as a city where life is good for seniors, after the weekly L'Express ranked the town number one for that population. In a report filmed in the city and introduced by Jean-Pierre Pernault, the anchorman of the mid-day bulletin, Tf1 gives the floor to persons having choosen Angers for their retirement. If, of course, sweet life goes along with healthy life for the channel's editors, the reasons why elders now live in Angers are clarified and may give ideas to the current, and future, managers of the town.

The pedestrians interviewed by Tf1 point out that they can rely on the health facilities available in Angers in coutryside, it's a medical desert". Those also notice that "there are many activities in which seniors may involve". But, what is especially attractive is the size of the city : with 230 000 inhabitants, the Angers metropolis has still at a "human scale" where "everything one may need can be easily found". The setting of the citty is appreciated because "there are a lot of gardens" and Angers has "a low density".
while "

If all the statements of the inhabitants the tv channel met were not filmed, the reporters have been told that "the coexistence of heritage and contemporary culture" on either bank of the Maine as well as the public transports, were something useful for older citizens "who drain their chidren and grandchildren", remark Tf1, all convinced that "Angers is a city for the future", even if they don't say it is their one.

A debate at Essca may foreshadow a possible 2nd run and an economic background of the municipal elections

Frédéric Béatse

A meeting about the local economy between Frédéric Béatse, current Angers mayor, and Christophe Béchu, president of the Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire, both of them candidates to the 2014 municipal elections, has clearly a double meaning. If economy is in the mind of many Angers inhabitants because the situation is quite worrying (increase of unemployment in the Angers Loire Métropole area, decrease of temporary workers, recent announcements regarding possible relocations or closures of local companies), the confrontation between the two political representatives is the real attractiveness of the meeting. The audience made no mistake about it : the event, due to the Interclub économique d'Anjou, a structure sponsored by some Angers private companies and public authorities, takes place on October 22th in the evening at the Ecole supérieure des sciences commerciales d'Angers without a single seat available.

The topic of the meeting " How to boost the economic dynamism of Anjou?" will surely be one of the most important stakes for voters who are also employees, managers, retired, jobless or students. During the last years, several debates illustrated the permanence of the issue in the public opinion : the struggle about a possible opening of stores during Sundays before Christmas and New Year days, some questions regarding the interest for stores located in the new commercial park Atoll to open all Sundays, the discontent of downtown retail stores about the difficulties coming from the increase of car park fares, and so on. The Anjou, severely hit by some important companies closures, the last being those of Angers Technicolor, is looking new ways of recovery : first the vegetable sector and more recently the electronic field, but these tools are recent and hampered by the international and national economic climate.

Christophe Béchu

It is not sure the debate will satisfy the electoral expectations of the public. The two candidates have, untlil now, carefully avoided frontal confrontations. So it would be hazardous tomorrow to look for a winner and a looser. But it could result in two casualties. Even if the participation of the two representatives is due to the fact they are both in office, the first damage could be done to Jean-Luc Rotureau (who has just resigned from its minority leader position in the Conseil général) as if that one was already eliminated of the likely second run of the elections. Another one could be the Angers mayor office itself if the audience had to conclude that in economy, the person in charge, whatever be its political convictions, is powerless.

Resentments and dissents are what keeps Angers policy going

As the Angers municipal elections come closer, the reality of the relationships on the left, between the centre and the left,  and between the centre and the right of the local political exchequer are resurfacing and could possibibly become more strained. On the left, a book entitled "La machine à perdre" due to be published within a month by a former editor of the daily Ouest-France, Alain Machefer, casts some light on the links between Jean-Luc Rotureau, former deputy mayor and Jean-Claude Antonini, former Angers mayor.

In 2011, they were detestable on the evidence of mails between those two persons. At that time, rumours were made public by Angers medias about a possible resignation of Mr. Antonini before the end of his office (2014). Those rumours led Jean-Luc Rotureau to send a message to Jean-Claude Antonini. In this mail, Mr. Rotureau, which even doesn't write with a salutation to the mayor because he thinks that would be "hypocritical", urges that one to summon a meeting gathering several persons, including himself.

The mayor rejects Mr. Rotureau's offer, pointing out that he will leave office according his own choices and without gives his deputy-mayor to under-stand that he will be the next mayor. That was "a sounding smack", writes Mr. Machefer. Since that incident, the links between Jean-Luc Rotureau and Jean-Claude Antonini are definitevely cut as well as those between Mr. Rotureau and Frédéric Béatse, because that one was finally promoted Angers mayor. Angers inhabitants are now aware about the resentment of Mr. Antonini towards his deputy.

Recently Jean-Luc Rotureau, in a tweet to Samia Ghali, unlucky candidate after socialist primaries, sparked more controversy making a clear allusion to the Angers situation,  "All my support to Samia. In Marseille or Angers, we have to give agina meaning to politics"... But the left side of the Angers political circles could not have the monopoly of quarrels. With the hesitations in the centre about the alliance with the right or the left, or even between the forces of centre, other dissents could surge.

The Angers centrists in a centrifugal movement

B. Dupré

The choice made up a week ago by the members of the Angers section of the Mouvement des démocrates (Modem) in favour of an alliance with the conservative candidate to the mayor office of that city, Christophe Béchu (Union pour la majorité présidentielle -Ump), has been put into question by the national decision-makers of the... Modem. On October 18th, the general secretary of the Modem, Damien Fesneau, reminded that such a decision did not depend on the Angers level, but on the national level of the Mouvement. So the alliance announced by Bernard Dupré, Modem delegate in Angers would not be yet concluded.

The explanation of that situation could not only have its origin in the statutes of the Modem. The current talks Union des démocrates et indépendants (Udi) for an alliance doesnt match the Angers tense climate between the local sections of those two parties. There is no alliance in perspective between them. Laurent Gérault, the new Angers delegate for the Udi, former member of the minority side of the Angers city council, was excluded in 2012 from that group by his fellow town councillors of the Modem. And the Udi members do not foresee, until now, an alliance with the Ump Christophe Béchu.
between that political mouvement and the

L. Gérault

It is obvious that the choice of the Angers Modem does not match the national strategy of that mouvement which choose to ally itself with the Udi in the perspective of the municipal, then the european elections. And even in Maine-et-Loire the Modem supporters do not follow the same line : while in Angers they choose to join the Ump, in Cholet, they decided to compete with the Parti socialiste. The Centrists are, currently, rather centrifugal.

Jean-Luc Rotureau pleads for cooperation between Angers and the Conseil général

Jean-Luc Rotureau has started to make audible his differen-ces with other candidates to the 2014 municipal elections. In a press conference on October 18th, he pointed out that the current economic diffiiculties will lead to postpone some important projects. He also found regrettable recent critics against the financial situation of Terra Botanica suggesting that a cooperation between the Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire, led by Christophe Béchu, candidate to Angers mayor office and that city, had to be implemented through the merger of their respective tourism departments.

On the same register, he explained that the most important facilities of Angers, stadiums, swimming pools, congress centre) should be transferred to Angers Loire Métropole, because they are used by Angers and surrounding cities' inhabitants.

Mr. Rotureau also unearthed an idea of which nobody spoke for years : the transfor-mation of the central post office in a commercial facility what could boost Angers downtown. He also proposed to purchase the Les Variétés cinema and use that place as an annexe to the current congress centre. About a new congress centre, the former deputy-mayor considers the economic situation is not favourable to its building, adding that the congress business is not as dynamic as it was. The field near the théâtre Le Quai, planned as the location for the facility, would be, in the meantime, simply developped as a public garden.

Jean-Luc Rotureau says he wants to stimulate a debate around these topics on which he will write to inhabitants within a month.

A regional socialist convention will talk about two sensitive issues for Angers

Angers will host on October 19th the regional convention of the Parti socialiste but the prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, will not finally come for reasons not disclosed by his administration. The event will be opened by Frédéric Béatse, Angers mayor and candidate to his own succession. Mr. Béatse, officialy supported by the Angers section of the Ps, will not intervene in the two debates planned that day about "The cities in network, a balanced regional development" and "Cities and countryside, stronger together?".


The first issue may nevertheless interest Angers mayor,
whatever be their political trend, because that town always claimed that the economic development had to be better shared between Nantes and its neighbour. Even if both of them are governed by socialist majorities, their interests and their assets are not always compatible. The second topic is also quite sensitive in Angers and surroundings because voices (like the mayor of Trélazé and socialist member of parliament, Marc Goua) recently asked to Angers to leave the presidency of Angers Loire Métropole.

The gathering of Pays de la Loire socialists supporters and decision-makers could have to face external dispute coming from the members of "Angers vivre mieux naturellement". That ecologist list, candidate to the next municipal elections, plans to seize the opportunity of that convention to relay fierce critics againts the Notre-Dame-des Landes airport scheme.

The Hôtel Bessonneau, sold at auctions in 2014

An important property of the Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire, the Bessonneau mansion, will be sold at auctions next year. Through internet, candidates will be able to make an offer on March 25, 26 and 27 and even make higher bids, anonymously. The opening bid is € 1.2 million. The best bid will be submitted to the Conseil général and the deeds will be signed at the end of 2014.

This building, erected in 1863, is considered as a jewel of the "Belle Epoque". Its architecture was influenced by parisian mansions. The front side, with a usual passage for the coach driver, refers to the Renaissance and the French XVIIth century. The interiors are splendid and raise the Bessonneau mansion as one of the most exceptional monuments of Angers. It was bought in 1883 by Julien Bessonneau, an Angers manufacturer in spinnings whose company disappeared in 1966, overwhelmed by the synthetic fibres. The company had employed until 10 000 persons in Angers.

Credit Pictures Wikipédia

The "Belle Epoque" was a a period of French history which took place between two wars, those of 1870 and those of 1914. Occuring during the IIIrd French Republic, it was characterized by optimism, peace at home and in Europe, new technologies and scientific discoveries. Peace and prosperity allowed the arts to flourish. That period was named retrospectively "Belle Epoque" when it began to be considered as a "golden age", in contrasts to the horrors of World War I.

Through local initatives for economy and employment, Angers authorities do not surrender

Even if the unemployment figures are not comforting for Angers inha-bitants and their representatives, initiatives are noticed to get companies started. The 7th Meeting of entrepreneurs took place on October 16th at the Maison des projets d'Angers, Imbach square. Sponsorised by several regional banks, the event welcomed all day long project carriers around conferences, workshops, testimonies and debates with persons having launched their own business.

Another initiative is going on. Due to Angers Technopole, it is dedicated to the transfor-mation of innovative ideas in projects. After a long period of one appeal per year, the structure has since a few year change the pace of the contacts with project carriers who are now able to compete three time a year. If the 2010, 2011 and 2012 sessions registered  around 230 projects, 25% have been selected for a support from Angers Technopole which hosted some of them in his own buildings.

And for young people who do not plan to start a business, the Mission locale pour l'emploi has invited on October 16th more than 1 500 youngs to a forum in the Maison pour tous of the Monplaisir district allowing them to meet five companies located in the city. Angers town and Angers Loire Métropole offered more than 60 jobs. The idea could be extended to other city districts next year.