Angers between winners and "twinners"

Angers a, ce 8 mai 2014, célébré, devant un public plus clairsemé que celui du 11 novembre, "la capitulation de l'Allemagne". Mais 2014 sera aussi, le 3 septembre, le cinquantième anniversaire du jumelage entre Angers et la ville allemande d'Osnabruck. Si la ville commémore la journée clôturant une tragédie, elle pourrait également saluer dans quelques mois une journée qui lui ouvrît une nouvelle ère.

Apparently, the comme-moration of the end of the second world war didn't attract a lot of people on Leclerc square in spite of the fact that, in comparison with the Nov 11th 1918 anniversary, many of the contemporaries, combatants or civilians, are still alive. After a young secondary school pupil read a message from the former combatants and victims of war, another official reminded that on May 8th 1945 was the day of Germany surrender just before a "Marseillaise" was sung by a scholar choir.

While that day is not a not a public holiday in Great-Britain, which also paid a heavy price to the victory, such a comme-moration paralyses a little bit more Angers which, as many other French cities, needs, on the contrary, economic activity on more numerous days. Many inhabitants (and not specifically the youngests) acknowledge that fact by going that day in the supermarkets for ordinary purchases.


Angers, which is twinned with Osnabruck (and Haarlem, Netherlands) since September 3rd 1964, could remind to the Angers inhabitants that a new era has begun with that city, and this country, fifty years ago... If some of the bad memories have to be commemorated, the good ones must be celebrated too.