Jean-Luc Rotureau would like an Angers mayor be elected "By other means"

Under the title of his book recently published, "By other means", Jean-Luc Rotureau, deputy-mayor of Angers, has acknowledged, at least, that he is thinking very seriously about the municipal polls due to take place in 2014. But, Mr Rotureau visibly is waiting a decision from the Socialist Party he is member : "If there are no primaries, I will  wonder if I must be a candidate", he said to the daily Courrier de l'Ouest, making the point that "I didn't give a reply to that question".

Credit Picture : http://www.rotureau.fr/

Denying the fact he could be the trouble maker on the Angers left, the current deputy-mayor, and challenger of the mayor, Frédéric Béatse, pointed out that he " was not in an undermining work". On the opposite, "I am on a constructive mood" even he "didnt choose the current situation, which is difficult for the left camp in Angers", something he feels he is not responsible : "Don't swith roles".  

Apparently Mr Rotureau didn't put up with the way the new mayor was lead to office. "When the change of mayor occured, the supporters were not questioned about their opinion. No these didn't choose the mayor", he said, distancing himself by the fact he "had the life of a supporter and [he] learnt the left on the ground and not in the offices". Regarding the outcome of the polls, the possible candidate assures he is not afraid : "the fear to loose a power or to not get a power is something destructive for policy".

Forbiden from the pavements, the Angers crepes sellers will take to the streets

They will not have the pavement tax. But, they will not have anymore... pavement. The crepes sellers will not have the right to cook their crepes in the streets because of the implementation of a municipal rule. But is that rule a new one? It seems it is not the case. Moreover, the rule doesn't appear very clear because numerous food store owners already sell products, mainly pastries, behind stalls set up on the pavements.

According to Jacques Motteau, deputy-mayor in charge of commerce, the risk of a lack of discipline may lead to anarchy and even danger for the pedestrians. What could be said if one of them were to be burnt by the oil of a deep fryer? Nevertheless, the measure looks misunderstood by Angers down town store owners who complained, a few months ago, about the important increase of parking lots fares.

Recently, the Boulanger store left the commercial centre Fleur d'eau because of the difficulty and the cost of a quick stay in down town for customers. For the professionnals, the competition of the commercial park Atoll, itself in late regarding its commercial expectations, is the origin of the current difficulties of reatilers in down town. The Angers town council should come to grips with the decline of the commerce in the core of the city as well as for economical and political reasons.

The trend of unemployment has badly worsened in 2013

The figures are gloomy. In 2012, the number of unemployed persons in Angers Loire Métropole and immediately available for a work crossed the threshold of 15 000. The tendency reached more than 13% between december 2011 and december 2012! Few by few, the percentage comes closer to the national percentage : in the Angers area, the rate of joblessness rose to 9,7% while, in France, it is 9,9%.

The comparison with the whole Maine-et-Loire shows that Angers is the most weakened zone because, in the department, the rate of unemployed persons is 9,1% (and 8,6% in the whole region Pays-de-la-Loire). A figure illustrates, alas perfectly, the mood. In Angers, more than 1 300 persons were laid off last year. The increase is above 30% in comparison with 2011... The last year had recorded several closures of companies, and among them, Technicolor which stands for most of the 390 new jobless persons during October. 
 
The addition of all the categories of unemployed persons gives a total of more than 23 800 jobseekers in the economic area of Angers. The elder workers are the most severely affected by the trend. If such a trend were to continue, the economic issues could be joined to the reflections Angers town council wants to stimulate among inhabitants regarding the life in Angers. Curiously, that field doesn't appear in the themes of the last Participation day. It could be useful to include them because French growth is predicted to be nil in 2013. (Credit Pictures : Angers Loire Métropole)

The Angers communities, an important stake for 2014 and after

"The day of involvement", organized on February 16th by Angers city, has illustrated the fact that the numerous associations of the town will be an important field of the next municipal elections of 2014. The Angers decision-makers put together last week for the 30th anniversary of the centre of congress had already be informed by a sociologist that one of the main change in French way of consumption was the consumer didn't want anymore to "cash and carry" but to be involved in his purchasing act. Why would it not be the same in the political sphere?

More than 2 500 Angers inhabitants already dedicate part of their time to issue regarding life in the city and more than 1 500 associations are active within the city. So it is logical and wise that the Angers town council takes care of that think tank. While the resources of Angers city could be under increasing tensions in the years to come because of the economic crisis, the possibility for any town council to prepare or to check the relevance of the public choices becomes an important asset. 

Credit Pictures : Angers city

Street code and seveal urban projects are some of the issues on the agenda of the Angers participation policy on the weeks to come. But it would be counter-productive for Angers and its inhabitants that this parallel democracy be a lack of checks and balances. That would only weaken the participation to the polls and be in defavor of the current majority.

The Angers Subway Saint Valentine's "special" menu has not been digested

The initiative of the Angers Subway sandwich shop located near the law university about a promotion limitated to heterosexual couples is not in favor of the sens of welcome the Angers city wants to publicize. "Rude service at restaurants is something of a stereotype in France, but one Subway sandwich shop located in Angers, about 180 miles from Paris, showed gay couples the door on Valentine’s Day", writes www.queerty.com whose tagline is "free of an agenda except the gay one". 

A sign, posted on February 14th by the Angers Subway owner, promoted "a Valentine’s special for couples: two foot-long subs for about $10". But, points out Queerty, "the owner indicated only male-female couples were allowed to use it—and insisted he was within his rights because same-sex marriage hasn’t official passed in the country" . *Discrimination (?), wrote the Angers store owner : No, the marriage for all bill has not yet been ratified by the senate. So for the moment I’m using the freedom-of-speech law".

The Subway France headquarter choose to repudiate what Queerty considers as an " act of bigotry". After it reprimanded the shop’s owner and ordered the sign be removed immediately, Subway expressed regret over the incident and closed the shop on Friday. The local lesbians, gays, bi and transexuals group, Quazar, said it will intends to sue the Subway Angers store manager because of anti-discrimination laws. "But, adds Queerty, since it was a Valentine’s Day promo, does that even matter? More importantly, if you’re taking your honey to Subway for Valentine’s Day—gay or straight—you’ve got bigger problems, n’est-ce pas?".

Angers télé want to stay aside from politics

Angers Télé will start to broadcast on February 21st at 7 (pm) o'clock sharp. The managers of the project clearly want to make clear that there will be a separation between Angers city and the new channel. An ethics commette has already been set up what could appear as an appropriate measure to neutralize any critic from the adversaries of the current majority. But is that committee independant from the Angers town council?

Probably many viewers of Angers 7 will not take care of the issue because the program looks to be rather structured and may be too. Each day has its dominant feature what could bore the audience. So one of the challenge will consist in a permanent renewal. The good idea of Angers Télé is to be accessible from different sources Tnt, cable or internet and above all 24 hours a day.

One of the remits of the ethic committe will be "to monitor the good use of French language". That loof old fashioned because the French news editors are not always the most respectful of the French language. A quality of the channel is the moderation of its business plan. The team and the ambition are considered. But in time of economic difficulties, that's rather wise.

The Angers touareg storyteller wanted by Mali justice

Credit picture : blog Moussa Ag Assarid

The Malian storyteller living in Angers, Moussa Ag Assarid,  is wanted by the Malian justice. Nor because of that activity, but because he also is the spokesperson of the Mouvement national de libération de l'Azawad (Mnla), a political group which demand the independance of the Northern part of Mali, apparently not only through pacific ways. The daily Ouest-France published on February 13th a picture of Mr. Ag Assarid in the middle of a groud of fighters wearing arms...
According the prosecutor of the court of appeals of Bamako, those islamist groups have conjured against the security of the Mali state, but above all guilty of terrorist acts and drugs trafic. About thirty persons are wanted and Mr Ag Assarid is one of them.  Legal procedures, at national and international levels, have been lauched by the prosecutor, so the "touareg of Angers" could be arrested by French police.
The man, who was, before his sudden departure for Mali, member of several Malian associations of Angers, and member of the foreign people Angers council, said to the press, "he knew what he was doing" by leaving the city and joining the Mnla in Mali.
Those decisions stirred huge emotion among Malian people leaving in Angers who are, at best, dumbfounded, at worst, outraged by Mr Ag Assarid's behaviour.  It is said that this one is now living in Angers surroundings.

Angers town council majority is looking for a second wind with a new centre of congress

For its 30th anniversary, the Angers centre of congress has dedicated the February 13th evening to a debate about the changes in behaviour's consumers for the last 30 years and the consequences of that for the city political and economical  managers. If Angers is not apart from the world evolutions, nevertheless, some of those trends may lead the authorities in charge of the city to implement specific answers in which the Angers centre of congress has a part to play.

The first change is the globalization which makes disappear the differences between countries. But, as Eric Groud, chairman of the Maine-et-Loire Chamber of commerce and industry reminded, that globalization was followed by "identity jerks" (religion, languages, separatisms, etc). So, that unpredicted consequences should stimulate Angers to cultivate a strong and specific identity in order to get more fame, more attractiveness (with the business tourism) and more money.  For the Angers centre of congress, its president, Jean-Claude Bachelot, pointed out that in 30 years, the business tourism "had fueled more than € 200 millions of revenues" in the city.

According to the Angers mayor, Frédéric Béatse, the most important change he experienced since 30 years was the connection of the city with Paris with the high speed train, an asset he wants the project of a new centre of congress he plans to locate near the Le Quai Theâtre makes the most of it.  That scheme will be one of the most important goals he would like to set up, if reelected as mayor. The current centre of congress "had already been in the core of the Angers municipal polls 30 years ago", reminded Mr. Bachelot. The new one could be a proeminent issue of the 2014 Angers ballots...  Mr Béatse is warned.

People having to change of residential location choose Angers

According to a survey of the website www.changerdeville.fr, Angers is, among the cities from 100 000 to 200 000 inhabitants, the 1st choice people would do if they were due to change another town as main home.The three standards which lead towards Angers are the cost of daily life, the ease to find a home and the ease of transport. If Angers is not visible in the head of the ranking in the standards taken one by one, the combination of those gives Angers an enviable 1st rank.

According to changerdeville.fr, the proximity of Angers towards Paris and the high speed train are an important asset for the city. So, that one has made the good choice in trying to shorten the railway travel between Angers and Paris thanks to the works at Sablé. Twenty years ago, the project of a high speed line linking Angers to Paris had been rejected by some Maine-et-Loire representatives what appears today as an historical mistake.

On a ranking of the cities apart from their number of inhabitants, Angers is 4th among 132 other cities. Tours would be its most important competitor. A few months ago, Angers had already been ranked, by L'Express as the cities from 200 000 to 300 000 habitants where the way of life was popular. The last news from changerdeville.fr are important indications the managers of the city should take care in order to make Angers more famous and attractive.

The audience of a debate about "islamophobia" has not been revealed

The debate about "the impact on (French) society of an islamophobia without complexes" organized on February 9th by Angers islamic associations in Trélazé city apparently didn't caught much attention. The Angers internet medias didn't dedicated coverages about that issue. No news was published about the audience got by the debate and what was discussed that day.

Probably because the promoters of the gathering choose the wrong way by considering an anti-islam feeling is growing among French population. The title of the debate was, in itself, an accusation of the Angers society and an indication of the fact muslim people consider they are victims of a anti-islam mood. Was it the good way to enlight people what be their religious (or anti-religious) opinions?

It seems that Angevins inhabitants, largely secularised, think that a religious opinion is, like many other opinions, a personnal matter. The fact religious opinions interfere more often now in the public sphere than 30 years ago is maybe something worrying for the local opinion. For example, the numerous muslim women walking in Angers streets with scarves on their head force other people to know what are their religious opinions. Angers people have the right to ignore what others may think in religious matters. Their lack of interest for the debate is an answer.

US and Mexico music, theatre and danse at the Angers regional academy in March

Jazz and musical are, among other events, on the music stand of the Angers regional academy during an "American Week" which shall take place at the Arts House from March 20th to 27th. The academy will be full of US as well as Mexico theater, music and danse with two lectures per day or exhibitions, during that period. That event coincides with the celebration of the Angers conservatory. The place will be opened to the public on March 23rd. The classes will be public every morning and the academy will offer performances every afternoon.

The Angers regional academy dispenses teachings in music, danse and theatre to 1 350 pupils with 80 qualified teachers. In order to widen its offer, the Angers academy has numerous partnerships with local and regional structures. But, the benefit pupils may get from the acadmy "makes neccesary a high involvement both from teachers and pupils". Eighty per cent of the resources of the academy come from Angers city.

These are mostly registered in music (1 150) then danse (175) and theatre (25), disciplines where hard work may lead pupils to "blossoming thanks to the surpassing of themselves".

Angers town council : "Minority report"

The title, the objectives and even the colours, black and red, of the platform are unequivocal. "Angers danger, the other appraisal of the Angers city council" is a fierce critic of the minority town council against the action of the two successive mayors, Jean-Claude Antonini, then Frédéric Béatse. Economy and employment, housing, planning, transportations, governance, daily life, solidarity-leisures, finance, districts, nothing finds favour in the eyes of the minority town council group. But the reproaches are not only technical.

There is worse in the pure political field. The members of the opposition consider that "there are some real things the mayor and the town council majority are inclined to misrepresent or to ignore". The signatories of the platform didn't swallowed the circumstances of the tranfer of power between the former and the current mayor they qualify as a "seizure of power" (i.e. a coup d'état). If some illustrations are correct (demography, unemployment, economy are not at their peak in Angers), the curent, and even former, town council is not necessarily responsible of that. Angers face the consequences of an international depression and the miseries the city experiment are the result of forty years of France's wrong policies (public debt, lack of structural reforms and even bad reforms like the working time reduction!).

The platform is the official launching of the campaign for the municipal polls of 2014 and above all predicts the way of that campaign : harsh and merciless. But that option will be demanding for the signatories of the leaflet. They will have to demonstrate and of course to convince the Angers inhabitants. The game is far from being over.

Angers Aqua Vita swimming pool complex on the start platform

Before the end of the current year, the Angers inhabitants can swim in Aqua Vita, the new water complex of the city. The first stone of the project has just been put up by on January 30th by the mayor. "Aqua Vita is the facility the Angers people missed. Do not forget that one inhabitant out of two does not go in holidays". So the water complex should replace the seaside for low income Angers households.

The objectives of visits are ambitious. Thanks to Aqua Vita, the globla numbers of visitors in Angers swiming pools shoulde increase from 658 000 to 885 000. And the new complex alone should register 390 000 entrance tickets. Through that facility, Angers city goes after the apprenticeship of swimming for all pupils of Angers primary schools and a place of relaxation for those who stay in town during summer. And all at low fares.

The money aspect triggers the main critics because Angers finances would not be presently in the same conditions as a few years ago. The overall cost of Aqua Vita reaches € 35 millions, 9 millions being financed by other public authorities. Frédéric Béatse, aware of those opinions, assured the project was "under control". It would be ironic that the city finances were sunk because of a swimming pool complex.

Angers city implements the "Contracts of future"...and future expenses

Of course the initiative is nice and the goal is honourable. On February 7th, Angers mayor, Frédéric Béatse, signed the first "Contract of future", a measure decided by the French government to promote the integration of young people in the professionnal life. Mr Béatse reminded the audience at this signature about the fact one out of five jobseekers is under 25 years old. The first recipient of that formula is Nicolas Dudoit, a young inhabitant of 25 years old who has a maintenance in buildings professionnal skill certificate.

Credit Picture : Angers city

Mr Dudoit should be followed by many others. About 125 persons should be hired by Angers city and Angers Loire Métropole before the end of the year. The overall cost of the measure will be of  € 2,5 millions per year but Angers city and Angers Loire Métropole will pay less because they will get allocations from the state. As if those were not financed by taxes!

If the insertion of youngs is a real problem in France, it is not sure that the best way to give them a job is to hire them in the public sector. Indeed, it has been widely said byt France and international financial institutions that the public operating expenses, and among them the wages bill, are already too important and must be lowered. For a higly likeable cause, Angers city and Angers Loire Métropole are just doing the opposite. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions".

The last Plantagenet king of England facing Angers

Thanks to the reconstruction of his face, the last Plantagenet king of England, Richard III, whose ancestors were originating from Anjou, looks to revive. Killed in 1485 at the battle of Bosworth by his foe, and successor, the Tudor Henry VII, Richard III was buried hastly in a little church of a monastery demolished and hidden for years under the black asphalt of a Leicester car park. His skull, uncovered in August 2012 with his skeleton, has been studied by a professor of cranio-facial identification at Dundee University with the same scientific procedures that would normally be used to put faces to unidentified victims of crime.

 Using images from a scan of the skeleton, the specialist was able to look at a 360-degree image of the skull and begin the process of reconstruction. In the programme, one of the first observations was that the skull was “gracile” and not strongly masculine. The reconstruction process began with the attaching of virtual pegs to the surface of the skull so it gives a contour and each peg represents the distance from the surface of the skull to the surface of the face. 

The next step began by adding the anatomical structure, starting with the eyeballs and slowly building up the muscle structure, fat tissue and skin (The whole process is carried out in a 3D computer system using pre-modelled, pre-scanned data to speed up the process). Then the virtual skin is placed on top of the muscle structure in a similar way to real clay, building it up roughly at first until it becomes smoother and more detailed. the nose was choosen from the database that is similar to the one they want and then they alter that to fit the skull.

Angers last year memorialized the execution of Edward Plantagenet, the legitimate pretender to the throne of England after the death of Richard III. Edward Plantagenet was executed by order of Henry VII. Curiously, the simultaneous discovery of the remains of Richard III were never related by Angers press while the city of the Plantagenet partially dedicated the Accroche-Coeurs 2012 to that dynasty.

A "Maison de la langue française" in Angers ? Wine and see...

Some news  look to be jokes. The association Les lyriades de la langue française plans to open in Angers a "Maison de la langue française" What for? Has the level o French people in french become so bad that they need an additionnal training? The interest of the project even has been pointed out by Stéphane Martinez, member of the Maine-et-Loire Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in charge a partnerships. During a period of economic crisis, such an idea is at best questionable, at worst incongruous.

The most worrying is the involvement of territorial authorities in the financing a feasability studies : the Pays de la Loire region, the Maine-et-Loire department and Angers city. All are united for the promotion of French in France. Wouldn't it be more useful to promote their territories abroad?

"The set up of such a structure in Angers will be a real asset for the attractiveness of the territory, moreover on a world level", ads Mr. Martinez. But one of the objecives of the "Maison de la langue française" is also the promotion of wines. But that has to see with tongue and not language. French language is sometimes a little bit vaguen than English but French wines are surely better!

The skeleton found under a Leicester car park last august is Richard III the last Plantagenet king of England

If the Plantagenet dynasty, which ruled England from 1154 to 1485, had definitely been put away in history books, the legend of that family was still alive thank to a mystery. That mystery was the disappearance of the body of the last Plantagenet king of England, Richard III, killed in 1485 during the Bosthworth battle, by his foe and succesor, Henry VII, 1st Tudor king of England. A skeleton, discovered after archeological digs under the Friars car park in Leicester, a place of a monastery, destroyed since, where, according to historians, the remains of the defeated king were buried 527 years ago. 

The news of the possible discovery of the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty, coming from the Anjou province before 1000, had yet covered pages of many newspapers and magazines of the world, and not only the English speaking world. The analysis of the skeleton's Dna and its comparison with the one of a distant descendant led the specialists to conclude "that beyond reasonable doubt the individual exhumed at Grey Friars in August 2012 is indeed Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England”.

The news is a godsend for Leicester whose cathedral should shelter the remains of the king because tourist attraction will benefit. The Bosworth heritage trail attracts about 40,000 visitors a year. and according to  Leicestershire county council, it is predictable that Richard III’s tomb would multiply that number. England saw in 2012 dispute about the final resting place of the king, a reminiscence of medieval cities fighting each other over saints’ relics in a bid to ensure pilgrim visitors – a source of revenue similar to today’s tourist attractions.

"The happiness therapy" in live over Angers

Chance? While a new movie is annouced in Angers cinemas, "The happiness therapy", something pursuing the same goal has arrived in Angers : the "Café Happy Lab", so called... in French! The idea, which has developped throughout France consists in a monthly meeting, on Sundays, in a cafe, around "tea time" (17 h 00) to talk about happiness with an explorer of that situation.

The guest of the first Cafe Happy Lab in Angers was Charles Martin-Krumm, professor of positive psychology. The unique issue of these events is : happiness. Happiness is discovered through a pluridisciplinary approach (philosophy, psychology, economy, sociology) or through the experience of very different people (entrepreneur, explorer). The method gives priority to "the combination of knowledges and closeness sometimes with lectures, sometimes with workshops". So participants "travel in the core of different subjects in order to discern the shape of their own happiness", says the website of the "Café Happy Lab".

The first gathering of Angevins eager to find new ways for happinness or, simply, wishing to live more consciously the happiness they already live daily took place in Toussaint street. That name is associated in France with the day of the deads which is not a very favourable circumstance to express or to experiment happinness. And the name of the place which hosted the event is the Café Osé. Oh yes, it was daring to do so!

Angers fond of (Chinese) tea time

The Chinese New Year event was celebrated on February 2nd in Angers down town by the local community of this country, during all the afternoon on Ralliement square. That special date for the Chinese people was an opportunity for their main representation in Angers, the Confucius institute, to catch the interest of the inhabitants for Chinese culture, language and economy.

The rumbles of drums annouced the cortege of a giant dragon brought by young Chineses dressed in yellow and black colors. Kiosks had been set up in Ralliement square where numerous members of the Chinese community of Angers as well as Angers inhabitants were gathered for tea tastings and informations about the lectures to Chinese language(s) organized by the Confucius institute.

 The Chinese universe is already present in Angers, not only through the Confucius institute, but also through the Mongazon lycée which teaches Chinese. Angers is twinned with the harbour city of Yantaï located in a region producing wine. The Angevins maybe would have prefered to taste Chinese cabernet than black tea.

Mr Béatse, for icy open air market places : sand of a beach!

If Angers city is sentenced after a passer-by slipped on the ground and injured herself within the limits of the open air market, the mayor may have had reason to cancel that event a few weeks ago when the weather was snowy. The case was judged on February 1st by the administrative court of Nantes and that jurisdiction could decide to sentence the city up to € 15 000.

Credit Pictures : Angers city

A few weeks ago, Angers town council minority launched an attack on Frédéric Béatse because he had decided, too cautiously according to the opposition members, to cancel the weekly open air market of Leclerc square. The decision triggered complains from mobile store owners and even from inhabitants who love to walk around the stalls of fruits and flowers. 

Of course, it would have been possible to spread sand on the parking lot to prevent accidents, sometimes dangerous for elder persons who are fond of that moment whatever be the weather. The accident which led the town in front of the court occured along a fish shop. The ground was covered by ice, necessary to preserve the fish.  Next time, Mr Béatse will be well advised to cover the ground around the mobile fish shops with sand. Seafood lives above the sands and Angers inhabitants love seaside!