Risks of accidents are blooming in Angers down town with spring

With the end of a three years work in Angers for the first streetcar line, down town looks to reborn. But the "long urban winter", the city experimented is now ending and that feeling of renewal is reinforced with the longer days, the mild temperatures and  the blooming of trees which predict the very soon arrival of spring in Angers. 

But some urban inconveniences may come with the new season. For example, along the Foch boulevard, magniolias are covered of white flowers which, one by one, "In their last journey downward from the bough" are falling on the ground "With all the wayward grace of careless flight!"(1). But those delicate petals are dangerous. Their decomposition are covering the Chinese granite pavement of the Foch boulevard with a soapy thin layer on which many persons could fall. On friday morning, a municipal sprinkler lorry was cleaning the place to prevent injuries. On the following days, all had to be done again. 

If that risk will be eliminated after the end of the blooming, the security of pedestrians (and especially the safety of senior pedestrians who are numerous in down town Angers) could deserve more attention from the city.

(1) excerpt Cyrano de Bergerac Scene 5.V.

An born American curator at Angers castle faces a monumental task

The Angers castle will now be directed by a curator native of... USA. Patricia Corbett, who acquired French nationality, will manage the King René castle for the years to come. Arriving from Carcassonne where she increased the number of visitors as well as the revenues of the monument, will have a lot of work to do.




Badly damaged by a accidental fire in 2009, the Royal Home at the center of the castle could be the symbol of what to do : to restore the attraction of the place. Everything has to be reconsidered. For example, the entrance of the Apocalypse tapestries museum is dedicated to sales of souvenirs. It means that a tourist who want to buy a souvenir of the castle and its contents has to pay a ticket. The visitor has to pay for buying... A show room located outside the castle could attract people to visit the monument. Moreover, the scale down model of the castle in its ugly room : a monumental disaster.

And, just before the Apocalypse museum, there is a huge hall, open air, with  windows opening in the vacuum, and ground devastated by archeological research the French state starts 20 years ago and never finished...  Mrs Corbett should to shake its administration to finish the job. The true "apocalypse" is not where it is indicated. Good luck!  

The Saint-Patrick Day gathered hundreds of people last evening in Angers

A national irish celebration is winning over Angers. The James Joyce pub attracted on march 17, hundreds of young men and women who gathered to celebrate the Saint-Patrick Day. The pub was crowded as well as the tables outside the café and the pavement a little bit higher and lower. On the way dedicated for public transports, there was no room for buses and taxis.

A lively atmosphere prevailed under the dodgers in the front side of the James Joyce where beer flowed among people talking cheerfully and taking pictures of the event. Some of them had made up their faces to the appropriate color : the green of Ireland; others wore green and black opera hats. Only the music wasn't tipically Irish. All the drivers stopped to watch that happy party, discreetly monitored by police and civil defense ready to grant assistance. Apparently, the others English or Irish pubs in Angers didn't gathered so much people.

The Saint-Patrick Day is observed on 493 March 17, date of Saint-Patrick death, now celebrated both inside and outside Ireland.

The nuclear crisis worries former Japanese students in Angers who see friends departures

The nuclear crisis in Japan seems to worry the students who came in Angers a few years ago to improve their fluency in French. In several e-mails they sent on march 16th to their former hostess in that city, they report their concerns regarding the gravity of the situation at Fukushima nuclear facility.

"Now, we are very worried about the nuclear power station at Fukushima although tv says it has no influence on individuals", write Yayoï, a young woman who, at the moment of the first quate was at her office at the 19th floor of a tower in Tokyo down town. "We pray the skies to calm down", she ads. Tokyo inhabitants can't forget Fuskushima because "there are several electricity cuts every day in order to insure power the the nuclear station".

In some other sectors, the working is resuming with difficulty. It's the case in the transportation sector : some trains are operating, others not. Some moments are difficult : "Many foreign people go back to their country. A French friend has already gone". And in spite, or because of, "phone cuts, transports problems or regular quakes every 30 mn, we think of you", says Sayaka who adds ' "all day long".

"VéloCité+" may mean...more expensive

Credit : Angers city

The new municipal bike service "VéloCité+" will open on march 22nd in front of the Angers railway station. The travellers arriving in Angers Saint-Laud will so get at their disposal that rental service completely different, and even opposed, from the service Angers inhabitants already got since 2004 : "VéloCité".

But, in fact, the sign "+" here means... less! If, thanks to "VéloCité", every Angers resident can rent a bike, up for a year and for free. Most of the beneficiaries of that facility in Angers are students. It means to pay local taxes to the city has no  influence on the access to the service. An inhabitant, who annually finance the service through his tax, may use VéloCité only once in his lifetime.

In "VéloCité+", a travellers arriving in Angers will have to pay from 2 to 10 euros "+" a membership fee ranging from 1 to 5 euros. That point is incomprehensible : why the use of a bike for a year is free of membership cost (no deposit is compulsory) and the use for a single day, or a few days, is not? Why somme people who don'pay taxes in Angers have a free access to bikes and visitors comin in town for business or tleisure have not? In those conditions, it is no surprising "VéloCité" be a success! "VeloCité +" will be more or less successful?

Former Japanese students of Angers describe cuts of electricity ans shortages in stores

While the crises seems to worsen in Japan, the native students of this country who came in Angers during the last years, and even the last days, sent today new messages about their situation to their former hostess, Emma, who lives in Angers. It seems some people don't realize what is going on in their country.


For exemple, Rei, who now works in a hospital in Yokohama, describes "people coming for their medical periodical tests" while the health authority should be busy with emergency cases! But in that city, "electricity will be cut on monday and the superstores are closing sooner than usually".


Another student, herself in Angers a few days ago, wrote "the confusion is going away". But one of her friends, Mali, just arrived in Japan, realized immediately, something was going badly almost in the Norht of Japan, "there, it's very serious". Nevertheless, most of them say "Don't worry".


During that historical period for Japan, some Angers website dedicated articles to the danger of nuclear facilities for French people. It looks like if the disaster occured in France...

Former Japanese students in Angers face difficulties in their daily life

Credit Wikipedia

In the middle of the worst crisis their country is facing since the end of the second world war, Japanese students formerly at the Western Catholic University still give by mails and phone to the family who hosted them in Angers informations about their daily life. After the quake which destroyed part of Japan, the inhabitants seem to organize their new rythm of existence.


A student, Yayoiï, says she didn't have to work today : "The company ordered to members of its staff who had no train to stay home". If to go to work is possible, the way back is not sure, so people don't move. That is the same for pupils. "School of my district (in Tokyo) is close this morning", she says. But the shortages of energy are about to come. The young woman had to go to stores to buy some batteries because electricity is cut several times a day : "We shall have dinner without light".

Another student, Ryutaro, wrote it couldn't watch tv, no because energy is lacking, but because the news are too sad : "The landscapes are destroyed and people homeless". Some of the superstores "are empty. Fortunately, we have food at home and are able to communicate with you".


       

Japanese students of Angers describes rising human losses and mental exhaustion after quake

Worrying news came yesterday from Japanese students who returned to their native country after a stay of several months in Angers families. As the human and material losses in Japan worsened as consequences of the violent quake the country lived on march 11th and, apparently, could continue at lower magnitude in other parts of the country.

Credit picture wikipedia

The students living in Tokyo describe the visible consequences of the quake : "no electricity, gaz or water in the middle of Japan, the epicentre of the quake". Moreover, in the capital of Japan where they live "secondary quakes are felt". Regarding the material damages of the quake, most of the students in Tokyo didn't noticed damages on buildings but in the North of the country, one of their relatives saw his home disappear.

But some of the students insisted (at 16 h 40 local time) yesterday about the moral consequences of that "terriblement de terre" on people as "The number of victims is just about to rise" and "the radioactivity is going to disseminate". One of them wrote : "it's terrifying. We are not exhausted physically but rather mentally". People looks sensitive to the solidarity Western countries expressed to Japan. We have hope".

During the quake, Japanese and US students gave news to Angers friends

Safeguard measures at school

If Japan is far from Angers, nevertheless, links exist and become stronger even if years go on. Since 2005, an Angers family, among others, hosted, for a few weeks or a few months, Japanese students who came in that city in order to improve their skills in French and to discover another culture. So, when Emma, the host mother, learnt by radio and web an earthquake was underway in Japan, she immediately sent e-mails to the girls she welcomed in Angers.

Kobe Earthquake in 1995

"I am thinking of you. I would like to receive news from you as soon as things will be better. I am worried about you", she wrote. At once, she received answers from Akane, Aï, Eri, Lei, Rina (who just came back to Japan after a stay in Angers), Sayaka, Tomomi or Yayoi who are still in touch with their guest family. "I'm afraid of the secondary earthquake. I pray for the safeguard of everybody", says one. "I'm afraid. But don't worry", told another. An American student, native from Hawaï said she felt "the first signs of seismic activity. The tide and the waves rose a little bit. The districts near the shore have been evacuated and the school has been cancelled tomorow", added Rebecca.


And another one works at the 19th stage of a building called she had just the time to take an helmet and run to a more safe zone. One of the former students of the Western Catholic University, now stewardess, was due to take off today with destination to the city of Sendaï located at the core of the disaster. Her flight was just cancelled for other purpose! Even unvoluntary, the most revealing words of that horrible event were written after the quake had just occured : "terriblement de terre"...

The Angers Maine banks reconquest on stream

The three teams of architects still pre-selected by town hall to imagine the reconquest of Maine banks were invited on march 3 for a boat-ride along Angers. After a first discovery by walking, the architects were able to discover the city from the water and "with a point of view very different", as pointed out Christophe Lesort, head of the project "Maine banks" at town hall.
  
The movie recorded during that sunny day lets appear another huge difference between urban and natural places. From the Maine, the city is only a deafening and permanent roar while a hundred meters, in upstream or downstream, "the birds can be heard as the wind in the trees or the lappings of the boat slipping on the water", remarks Fin Geipel.The task of the architects, to promote the appropriation of the Maine banks by the inhabitants, will not be easy. "The boat-ride let see the continuity of the banks some are accessible, others aren't", says François Grether.

Credit Wikipedia

One of the main challenges of the teams will be to overcome the present uses the Maine suffers, foresees Claire Shorter : "There are big strains". What will the next step? Angers from the sky?


Edgar Girondin

Les Arthurs : "march" on Feydeau

Les Arthurs co. (credit : Avrillé city)

Les Arthurs, a theater company famous in Angers, will perform, from march to april, the Georges Feydau's play "Feu la mère de Madame".  Three places will host the shom : the Georges Brassens center (Avrillé), on march 18 and 19 (at 9 pm), the Théâtre de l'avant-scène (Trélazé), on march 25th and 26th (8.45 pm) and the Angers' Théâtre de Chanzy, on april 2nd (8.30 pm). The bookings are already opened.

G. Feydeau (credit wiki)

"Feu la mère de Madame" tells the story of a mistake. Lucien and his wife are in bed and a manservant rings at the door in the middle of the night. The messenger says the lady's mother is dead. While the family has to wake up in order to visit the deceased, Lucien and his wife are told the messenger knocked at the wrong door : it's the neighbour's mother who is died...


Les Arthurs company was set up in 1990 and performs at the La Comédie, a little theater located ner the Ralliement square, many comedies from French authors and among them Feydeau, Francis Veber, Jean-Pierre Bacri and Agnès Jaoui as well as foreign like Woody Allen.

The Angers Arboretum gardens cultivate charm and distinction

A walk through the Arboretum gardens on a sunny sunday morning is at the same time a travel in nature, silence and past. As soon as the street at the entrance of the park has been left behind, the first surprise of the visitor is the silence. An impression of dignity drops from the old oaks which line the road leading at the center of the Arboretum. Benches welcome visitors wishing to see the top of the branches to lost in the blue sky.


A hundred meters after the entrance gate is a charming house surrounded by a refined garden full of the blue and yellow colours of the pansies. Dispersed statues give to the place a touch of solemnity. Turning around the house leads the visitor from shadow to light. On the Southern side a more formal garden takes place. Little vegetables walls divides the gardens in rooms each of them having its own spirit. Even geometrically planted trees highlight a simple lawn on the center and boxwood hedges diffuse their subtle smell of the past.


But it along a few paths that the moste beautiful part of the garden are located. Gardeners of Angers city digged thousands of bulbs (narcissus, tulips, hyancinth) which will bloom in the days to come. A symphonie of fragances and colors will make that garden more charming.

Cancelled in 2009, the Angers new urban local project will have to pay attention in consulting inhabitants

Within a couple of weeks, the process due to lead to a new urban local project will be re-opened by Angers Loire Metropole. On march 24th, the local authority will first define how the forms of a dialogue between the local authority and the inhabitants. Conferences on housing and environment will take place on spring and will be an opportunity for the Angevins to say how they see their city in the future.


In order to facilitate the understanding of all the process and what is at stake, Angers plans to set up walks designed to illustrate on a realistic mood how the city is organized. That would be useful because numerous documents intervene in different aspects of the process. Moreover, the meetings between town councillors and inhabitants illustrate how it's difficult to conciliate the public wishes and the public rules.


If everything goes right, the new urban local project is due to be completed in june next year. The elected representatives of Angers and the cities around wil have to pay attention to the respect of urban rules. In april 2009, a first urban local project had been cancelled by the administrative court and all the process had to start all over again. The court had pointed out insufficiencies in consulting inhabitants.


Edgar Girondin

Street fishing and geocaching are leisures in "progressive form" at Angers

Two new leisures have been promoted in an Angers local internet news website during the last months. Both clearly are based on English catchwords which make them more "trendy" and attractive to people. The last one is called "geocaching" and is a more technological form of the old treasure hunt. Like in that one, a treasure has been hidden but, this time, its geographical position have been indicated on a website. The geoseeker takes note of that and, thanks to an application programm (one which can be loaded on an iphone), attemps to find it. Several treasures have been yet hidden in the surroundings of Angers.

The second is the "street fishing" which has held its first edition in Angers last october, not in the streets, but in the Maine river. If the accessories are the same as in usual fishing, and if, in addition, the goal is to catch the more fishes possible thanks to lures, the fate of the catched fishes are more enviable because they come back to water after they have been taken in photography! The masterword is "no kill". By that way, the promotors of street fishing tries to sensibilize the public to the protection of halieutic environment.


Would these two activities be as attractive under a French title? Are they the only ones which "sounds" English? Certainly not. In very recent times, professional leisures englicized appeared in Angers like "Afterworks". And the local authorities choose to develop tourism in Angers under a new "Anjou Loire Valley".

Edgar Girondin

10 000 bulbs planted for spring in the Angers Arboretum gardens

If Angers inhabitants are lucky to take advantage of numerous gardens (more than twelve), one of them has kept its soul, its atmosphere, its feeling of yesteryear. It is the Arboretum gardens which, from march 5 till the end of november, will be opened to public all day long during the weekends.

And that year, no less than 10 000 bulbs have been planted for spring by the city gardeners in the three horticultural sections of the place : the Tests garden, the Umbrages garden and the Five senses garden. Created in 2000, those three gardens of the Arboretum park were the start of a huge renovation which lasted almost ten years.


The charm of the place comes certainly from the home of Gaston Allard (1838-1918), an Angevin botanist, who created the gardens surroundings his beautiful manor, built during the 19th century, with harmonious proportions and subtle colors. The pedestrians will surely appreciate in that haven of peae a wandering through nature and history.

The daily misconduct of Angers drivers

 The limited access of cars to Angers down town could have an advantage : to prevent bad educated drivers of throwing out of theirs beloved cars cigarette buts, papers, chewing gum and so. And all do the same, whatever they are, young, adult, or senior, man or woman and what may be the standing of the vehicle. What is the most surprising in such behaviour is the fact those persons would not probably do the same at home (and, in additon, all cars are equipped with ashtrays).

Credit : fotosearch

A few days ago, municipal gardeners were setting in order the clumps, pruning the trees, digging the ground for the arrival of spring. That is nervertheless a difficult task in spite of the equipment they use and the number they are. A few days after the their job is finished, all the beds are lotted, not with flowers but with buts! It is surprising the city doesn't protest about that.

But sometimes there is worse. People smoke in their cars with their kids sat behind which breath the same polluted air. How can drivers claim they think much of the environmental issues and, at the same time, think nothing of the consequences of their daily misconduct?

A Kentucky fried chickens is announced for the end of 2011 in Angers

Credit picture : wikipedia

According to some forums on Facebook, the night club Mid'star, could leave space to a Kentucky Fried Chickens, an american chain of restaurants. The Mid'star is located on Felix Faure bank, near the Gaumont cinemas and next to the new bridge Confluence. The access is not very easy for drivers crossing Angers, so the customers of that restaurant could come mainly from the cinemas nearby.

Few by few, that space is changing its indusrial identity towards a urban identity. A large open space and some wholesale stores which occupied that place have disappeared leaving room to buildings for inhabitants and offices. Within a few years, that large landlocked area will have vanished and a new district, the Angers of the XXIst century, will spread new architecture for a new generation. Moreover, if the project "New Bank" is implemented, Kfc will benefit ot an attractive site.

Credit picture : Mid'star

If the american catering, symbolized by the fast food, is yet well represented in Angers, Kfc is not in the landscape. Kfc primarily sells chicken pieces, wraps, salads and sandwiches. While its primary focus is fried chicken, Kfc also offers a line of grilled and roasted chicken products, side dishes and desserts. Outside North America, Kfc offers beef based products such as hamburgers or kebabs, pork based products such as ribs and other regional fare. The arrival of Kfc would be scheduled for the end of the year.

The Angers Sco in the scoops

Supporters of the Sco erupted in joy on march 2nd after the Angers soccer club won its ticket for the semi-final of the France soccer cup over Chambery. In the cold evening of that winter, that victory will warm up all its fans who fear the worst for the Sco : a relegation in a lower national soccer division due to the case planned for the first days of april. Its a curious contrast : the Sco get at the same time the titles for misuses of funds and and victory on the field. The is near the abyss and the stars.


If the Sco is at risks on april 8th, day of the trial of his chairman, Willy Bernard, for irregularities in his financial manangement of the club, the municipal council and especially its majority runs big risks. After a public debate on monday at town hall, the city council annouced that a buyer for the club is needed, what it shows the majority has already ousted Willy Bernard. If, finally, the court gives right to the chairman of the Sco, the majority of the municipal council will suffer a terrible blow.

Credit pictures : Wikipedia and Angers Town Hall

If it is not the case, the court could nevertheless point out the breach of city council in its monitoring of the Sco and the star of the Bar Willy Bernard has recruited will not miss that point. On that field too, the final game is not already played out.

Saint-Jean-de-la Barre college in Angers launches theatrical classes in English

Would some schoolboys and schoolsgirls of Angers be eager to speak English more fluently? These teenagers of the Saint-Jean-de-la-Barre private college, located in the Belle-Beille district, had yet since 2005, an option called "English+". In order to improve their tone, their stress, their accent, they invited Suzy Taylor, an English speaking actress of the VO company who hands out classes of theater in many schools in Western France.

Credit : Saint-Jean-de-la-Barre college

 That kind of classes could be much more interactive between teacher and pupils. On the basis of a theme, schoolgirls and schoolboys imagine a script in English, they play after. Thanks to that involvment in a theatrical play and their natural skills, the pupils take profit of their active stance. The vocabulary fits to their level and the play is understood by everyone. The pupils commentaries (written in French on the website of the college!) are meaningful : "it helped me to modulate my voice", or "it warmed up the most shy of us".

In the same college, younger pupils go to talking workshops which are run by... American students of the Cidef (Western Catholic University). More than ever in Saint-Jean-de-la-Barre, English is taught as a living language.

And now the "Afterworks" in Angers

Credit picture : Angers Afterwork

There are new "Afters" . We knew the old "Afters". For example, some pubs or bars located in down town Angers organized a few years ago, on no working days, openings hours at dawn. That was called the "Afters" and the customers came there after a night in a night-club and left the bars when sun rose. In bad shape and in good company... But now there are new "Afters" : the "Afterwork" and one is underway in Angers city.

The "Afterwork" (in French in the original text...) is a Anglo-Saxon set phrase recently taken up in France for pre-dinner drinks drunk more often when fair-weather days and after working days. Afterworks take place on terraza, at bars of luxury hotels, and even at home.

Credit : parisetudiant.com

"Angers Afterwork" is a way for students, employees or managers coming from all economical sectors to meet other persons and to promote professionnal exchanges. A website registers all interest persons and will send them news regarding the places and the schedules of the meetings. "Afterwork" is free. Nothing is said about the language used during "Afterworks"...