Fifty seven years between two crimes leads to ligth years verdicts of the Angers criminal court

The murder of a husband committed by his wife,on december 10th 2005, convicted on december 8th by the criminal court of Angers to three years of prison, all with suspended sentence, illustrates the change of female condition in France, even if progress is yet possible. May be sixty years before, the verdict of the jury would not have be the same, even if the second case differs considerably.

On december 10th 1947, a horrible crime was carried out at Baugé, a little city at the East of the Anjou province. There, a woman killed - savagely - her husband while he was sleeping. The mobile of the crime was the love for her young assistant in the sale of coal. If the man was convicted to life imprisonment in Fontevraud, the guilty was sentenced by the criminal court of Angers to the death penalty in november 1948. The sentence was executed in the prison of Angers on april 21st 1949.

During the recent trial, the daily life of the woman was described and taken in account (she lived a drama because her husband was always drunk and violent). Those considerations apparently were not emphasized by the same jurisdiction 62 years before. Germaine Leloy was the last woman decapitated in France

English classes take off in Angers city and around

Picture credit : Institut municipal d'Angers

Learning English attracts people from Angers and the surroundings, according to the press coverage of december 8th. In Angers the town institute will create new classes on first days of 2011 because inhabitants are eager to learn English or to improve their ability in this language. But the trend is the same around Angers.

In La Meignanne, a charming village circling a little church, a former teacher in English has just launched her own business whose linguisitic ability is the product. Her idea came from wishes expressed by La Meignanne inhabitants to get initiated or boosted in English for their jobs or their holidays. The email adress is expressive of her goal "annie.yougetit@laposte.net".

At the town institute of Angers, some English classes were already free on saturdays. Some were designed for real beginners, others for persons having an experience in English and others for more experienced candidates. But apparently, that was not sufficient. The authority has yet decided this autumn 2010 to open eight new paying classes whose rates range from around 100 € till 300 € a year (while the number of attendees is limited). And apparently, that does'nt lead to a decrease of the demand.

The Angers castle royal home is going to rise from ashes

Credit Picture : Centre des monuments nationaux

Severely damaged by fire on the eve of 2009, the restoration works of the Angers castle have just started. The roof, the floors and the inner fittings are to change. The difficulty of the transformation consists in introducing modern equipments (like a lift or a heating system in the floors) and, at the same time, using the most possible, ancient techniques. For example, the walls will be made of freestone and schist assembled with lime and Loire sand.

Credit picture : wikipedia

The cost of the restoration amounts to 8.5 millions € and the ressources come from the state (the largest part, 7.5 millions), companies (among them the Credit agricole and Thyssen Krupp) and about 250 private individuals (these gathered 300 000 € and a subscription is going on at www.jesoutienslechateaudangers.fr). They will enable the authority in charge of the monument to organize within the royal home events like scenographic animations and to welcome disabled persons.

Presently roofed by a huge white tarpaulin till the end of the works, the royal home will be open to public at the next Heritage Days on october 2011. That part of the monument was build under the king Louis II, around 1410 ans will be later widened by King René of Anjou.

"In the huts of the night"

The prohibition of smoking in closed spaces in France a few years ago has allowed an unwaited but merry consequence : the animation of the streets. In down town Angers on december 6, the temperature was not exceeded 5° and the weather was rainy. Nevertheless, on a day traditionnaly more quiet because some stores are closed, customers were, by little groups, gathered in the covered terraces of the cafes.

The weak light diffused by these yellow, orange or blue tents attract the inhabitants, almost the youngs, and give them an intimate shelter to continue their daylife. Sometimes provided with a gas device for heating the atmosphere, they become the only animated area for pedestrians surrounded by the night.

Most of them are concentrated around the Ralliement square especially along the Saint-Laud street. Those open air cafes look even more attended than the inner rooms, as if the people needed to speak in the clouds of fog instead of smoke. Cleared out of the crowd of the weekend, these tiny islands of life give the surrounding streets of Angers downtown their flavour of the old days and their mystery, till the dawn to come.

The French mood auscultated in Segré by an Us newspaper : mistrust and melancholy

The website Angers Maville indicated on december 3rd that an american newspaper, the International Herald Tribune (Iht), sent a month ago an editor in Segré in order to publish an article dedicated to the opposition between two organizations regarding the election of Miss France. Untitled "A pageant icon turns back on Miss France", the article describes  the gathering in the Segré's exposition hall of "thousands" of persons who attended there the election of Miss Pays de Loire. But the topics the american newspaper talked with local spectators enlight the mood of some of the people of Maine-et-Loire.

Excerpt from IHT : Paris, Saint-Tropez
and...nothing else

One of the aspects of that mood is the divide between Paris and the rest of France : "The thousands who have turned out at her pageants this year also reflect a moral conservatism and regional pride that remain stronger in the French “provinces” — a term widely employed here to mean “everywhere but Paris” — than is often recognized", writes the Iht.

Another is the melancholy regarding the current state of the country compared to what it was years ago. "We came because Geneviève de Fontenay represents decorum, she represents the French society of yesterday, a bit. Things are always outdated for some people; for others they aren’t.", said a local retired who, resigned, considers : "This is France, it’s simple things".

The Ralliement square, Angers city heart, returns to life

After a two years break because of the construction of the trolley line, the Ralliement square finds again a purpose faithful with its name : the gathering of the people around a celebration. Christmas is the first, but the next editions of the Accroche-coeurs and the Music Day could take place there later.

Disembowelled in order to modernize the parking lot, the Ralliement square looked a long time like a storage area with construction equipment and materials. Encircled by wirefences, enlighted by skeletal pylons on night, the Ralliement square had an ugly face and was nothing more than a crater of smoke, noise and dust. Pratically inaccessible, the stores should have experienced a severe lost of revenues during these two years and, according to business circles, it is quite miraculous they are still alive.

The end of the construction work brought extension or creation of restaurants and probably other changes in the La Röe street. On the first saturday of december, Christmas tree (fixed on a unsightly block of concrete), merry-go-round, wooden small houses, tinsels and music attracted the Angers inhabitants as if they wanted merrily to take possession of their common property and to feel the heartbeat of their city.

The Angers real estate market of new homes is rising

The area of the former Desjardins garrison house

According to some banks of Angers city, 2010 could be a very good year in the distribution of credit, especially in real estate credit. Several surveys aout the interest rates show that these a decreasing towards 3,2%, a trough never recorded in France since the 2nd world war.

The Capucins plateau

That could be an explanation to the surge of constructions (and of the prices yet described in this blog) all over the city. On december 2nd, the Bouygues group announced it plans of new buildings in down town (Boisnet street and in the Saint-Serge district) but it had yet others projects underway. Several national companies are constructing buildings : Nexity or Bouwfonds Marignan. The local companies are involved in this movement (Maisons Castors d'Anjou, Alain Rousseau Comine). Regarding the prices, they are not under 150 000 euros for a small flat.

Credit pictures Angers city

Angers and the surroundings cities are encouraging the trend : the plan to build more than 2 500 homes per year during ten years. The real estate professionnal are afraid of such a rise. They notice some difficulties to rent the properties and many authorities in social housing point out a developpment of the vacancy.

The arrival of the Angers streetcar could not warm up Ralliement square according to inhabitants

The arrival of the Angers new streetcar in its central station on december 1st only pointed out critics from the population regarding the urban design of the site. In spite of the cold weather and the wind of the winter, the incompleteness of the transformation of the area, and its present vitality with the Christmas decorations, the Ralliement square looks impersonal and mineral for many inhabitants of Angers city. The flagstones and the cobblestones of the surface as well as the fronts of the buildings create a feeling of greyness and monotony for many people interviewed by local medias.

The involvment of Angers city in the redevelopment of several districts (La Roseraie, Belle-Beille, Grand-Pigeon and, to come, Monplaisir) as well as the complete transformation of the appearance and functions of Maine banks seems absent in the design of the Ralliement square. Apart the possibilities to plant trees and create flower beds, the area will probably have the same look along the seasons. And the white colour of the street car will not warm up the place.

Hopefully, two restaurants owners are creating new commercial surfaces which could bring animation all year long. The Ralliement square could remain a pleasant area, only with special events given the functionnal choices (parking and transport line) it has received for the years to come.

The streetcar of Angers on Ralliement square

The streetcar of Angers is in sight. For the first time, it showed its face on december 1st in Ralliement square. The freezy atmosphere was warmed up by the huts of the Christmas market, the merry-go-round and even a band dressed up in Christmas trees. So the arrival of the streetcar sounds like a fair for the shop owners along the line (almost in that part of the city) as well as the pedestrians.

If the shape and the colours of the trolley are quite familiar to the inhabitants, the interior will be, for many, a discovery. The green seats are striped of brown and red lines and the ceiling of the coaches is decorated with leaves giving the traveller the feeling of a quiet atmosphere. The inner space is organized along the train around a large corridor (almost the double of the buses) and seats are sometimes perpendicular, sometimes parallel to the direction of the line. Travellers will be able to circulate from a coach to another and take advantage, through large windows, of the views on Angers from the beginning, the end or the sides of the train.

The Foch boulevard offers now a new perspective. Litlle by little, the fences, the vehicles of the construction site and rubble disappear making room for the green and the slates surfaces of the line brighten up with box hedges and hornbeams. Probably because the line is not yet electrified, the two trains parked in Ralliement plazza were pulled by a lorry. So the inhabitants still have something to discover...

The future of the motorway, at the core of the Maine reconquest

The future of the road "scarface" along the Maine, was not evoked by the three architects selected on november 29th by the city council of Angers after a competition it launched last october about the redevelopment of the bank's river. Nevertheless, it will probably be at the center of their thoughts during the nine months to come. The mayor of Angers wants the present motorway to disappear. But nobody knows how : suppression or burying.

(Credit pictures Angers city)

Apparently, everybody agrees about the fact that the present situation cannot go on. Even with the new northern highway, the traffic has not vanished along the river and many inhabitants still continue to use the way. If that traffic doesn't slow down, the redevelopment of the bank is endangered because the cars and lorries will make the pedestrians run away. And the peaceful atmosphere along the Maine will only be a (costly) dream.

For that reason, the teams of architects will have to conceive a project easy to evolve over the years. But on one point, the city council looks determined : the urban scheme must be designed around the river. "All the cities, even the greatest like New York , are involved on a project centred around the water. And within twenty years many things will have changed", said Jean-Claude Antonini. First of all the cars, which could be electrical.

The respect of laïcity in work places is not yet straightforward

News Analysis.- If the sight of young ladies more or less veiled in the streets of Angers doesn't seem to catch the attention of pedestrians, this could not be the same in working areas. A manager who hired a young woman coming from middle-east faces the comments of his workers who are not in favour of the emergence of religious clothes in their company, located in the city.

Apparently, the people wouldn't care about the religious opinions of their young colleague. They would rather criticize the fact that she is able, wearing her veil (blue with white dots), to impose the knowledge of her religious opinions to her colleagues. If, in England, it is not unusual to meet in superstores women dressed and veiled according to religious opinions, in France people seems -comprehensively - very sensitive to the respect of neutral behaviour.

In the streets, the situation looks pacified. But apparently, some women use their garments to attract the attention of the public. Agonized between their will of gaining an emancipation like others Western women and their fidelity to their faith, they seems to have found in a zealous implementation of their confessionnal dressing code a clever way to be at the center of the stage while playing, officialy, only a supporting part on it.

17th exhibition of wines and gastronomy : the products are traditional and the marketing too...

Craftmen specialized in food and wines coming from many French provinces were gathered at the exhibitions center of Angers on the last weekend of november. The wines stay highly visible in the rows of the exhibitors : Bourgogne, Bordeaux but also products from Cahors as well as Languedoc. But some producers try to innovate with, for example, a chocolate wine whose color is dark brown. Regarding the food, most known French specialities were there - cheeses, cooked meats, cakes, spices - but also jam and provincial pastries which break new grounds...


But the organization of the fair stays critically classic. No music (as in all superstores of that size), no event giving vitality to the exhibition, no speaker dedicated to attract people eager to buy products of the highest quality (even if they aren't cheap). Curiously, while in France, the gastronomy is erected to an art and is famous all over the world, the place dedicated for tasting the products is put aside whole it should be at the center of the fair!


The tickets give only the right to visit the exhibition. Would it be possible to by entrances which could allow to taste samples of a range of products? If the tradition is valuable for wine or sausages, it's not the same for the way to sell them. And in this field of activity, a lot of improvement remains to be achieved.

The real estate prices in Angers at the 1st row of a national ranking of increases

Credit pciture : Wikipedia

According to a survey published by a French economic daily newspaper "Les Echos" on november 26th, Angers is the city of France where the increase of the real estate prices of new accommodations is the highest. From the third trimester of 2009 to the third trimester of 2010, the increase exceed 10% per year and the m2 is sold 3.075 €. Marseille is a the second row of this ranking with an increase of the prices, close to Angers, of nearly 10%.

Many buildings are in works all over the city. Some districts (La Roseraie, Grand Pigeon or Belle-Beille) have been largely renovated or are planned to be redesigned (Monplaisir). Others are emerging (The Highs of Saint-Aubin or the Plateau of the Mayenne). Professionnals of private and social housing sectors are fearing difficulties to rent their buildings.

Credit picture : Angers Loire Metropole

The opening of the trolley line between Avrillé and La Roseraie may trigger an increase of the real estate values along the tracks. So investors have yet started new buildings along Victor Chatenay avenue in anticipation of the the second streetcar line. Even if that one could not be implemented before 2015 between Beaucouzé and the east of Angers. A previous edition of this blog was dedicated to that issue.

Even downsized the inauguration of the Angers streetcar will not end at Mc Do

Credit picture : Angers Loire Metropole

The protest caused by the cost of the inauguration ceremony of the streetcar led to a dramatic decrease of its budget. The mayor of Angers city, Jean-Claude Antonini, announced on november 26th that he will not withdraw the event. "The trolley needs a successful launch in order to encourage the inhabitants to use it", he said. But the money dedicated to the display will not exceed 150 000 € instead of 400 000 €.


The event will entirely managed by the city council and will associate the inhabitants, the schools and the non-profit making organizations of Angers. The local private companies have been "associated" thanks to an - illegal - increase of the local transport tax the city council will now refund thanks to a rise of taxes on households. As regards, the enterprises having worked on the project will be authorized to plan internal events in the maintenance center, but will have to pay themselves.

The giant feast has been cancelled but Mr Antonini warned he "cannot invite the official guests (and among them, the president of the French republic) at Mc Donald's". Above all, travelling on the trolley line will be free during the week after inauguration (june 25th). The street car free? "I'm lovin'it"!

Harry Potter in English version attracts young Angevins

Coat of arms of Hogwarts college

The first projection of the 7th edition of Harry Potter  "Harry Potter and the deathly hallows" filled two auditoriums of the Gaumont multiplexe as well as an auditorium of the 400 coups where, in that last cinema the movie was showed in English.The age of the spectators ranged from 9 years old to adults (The first volume of the story was published in 1997.

Harry Potter is a series of fantasy novels about the adventures of an adolescent wizard Harry Potter and friends, all of them are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Those novels were written by the English author Joanne Rowlings.

The success without of Harry Potter in France was accompanied by another phenomena : the publication and the reading of a book in its original version. According to Wikipedia, it is more and more common to read
works in their original version what was unusual ten years ago. "Harry Potter and the Phoenix Order" was, in 2007 at the top of the sales of books in France.

The real estate activity is coming back in Angers

According to the professionnals of real estate, the young households came back in the market. They are looking for housing in town for their first purchase while, up to now, they bought their first home in the countryside. This is a change of 2009, compared to the trend of the previous years.

If Maine et Loire is still one of the 97 administrative divisions where accession to property is the highest, the professionnal notice that the indebtedness of the purchasers is increasing. Almost 90% of the price of a home is borrowed to banks. The medium price of a house in maine et Loire ranges to 160 000 € in 2009 (it was 100 000 € ten years before). And the new homes are cheaper than the existing homes.

In Angers, the building sector is slowly recovering : the new projects are concentrated in that area. These trends are due to the demography and to the divorces which make necessary to build two homes for one family. One of the stakes of the next century is to limit the consumption of natural spaces. Till now, in spite of the efforts of the public authorities, the urban  sprawling is going on.

Angers Loire Metropole is preparing a tax increase to fill the deficit 2011

For the public authorities in France, when money is scarce there is only a way : to increase taxes. In the 2011 budget of Angers Loire Metropole, the expenses will be more important than the revenues : the difference is 25 millions €, so the tax payer will have to foot the bill and to reduce his own expenses. So why Angers Metropole doesn't do the same in order to equalize its expenses and its revenues?

On the 25 millions € needed, 7 millions come from an illegal increase of a local business tax decided a few years ago by Angers Loire Metropole which has to refund to the companies during several years to come (The overall debt in this chapter could represent till 40 millions €!). And 10 millions are due to the trolley line whose costs have derailed.

In order to fill the gap, Angers Loire Metropole will have to increase the property tax, the council tax paid by Angers households. But this will not be sufficient. The local authority will have to limit its operation expenses and its investments. In times of budgetary difficulties, the cancellation of the ceremonies planned for the trolley inauguration will be a good message. "Charity begins at home".

The Beatles through the Rabeats, soon in Angers

The public of Angers will have the opportunity to breathe again the atmosphere of the sixties. "The beatles" will ressucitate on november 27th in the Angers Theater with the performance of "The rabeats", four French musicians all fans of the famous british band. This interest for a symbol of England is not the only mark of a kind of "Englishmania" in Angers.

Products reflecting the country of the Beatles were yet in vogue in Angers : umbrellas, flags, men's haircut, stores in down tow and, very soo,, the projection of the last "Harry Potter". The show on the Beatles is also an opportunity to be in touch with a period of strong economic growth which is, nowadays, no more than a distant souvenir for the elders and a period definitly belonging to history for the youngests.

The originality of the evening performance of the Rabeats is a French Band wil sing for a French public, in an Angers theater... in English! So "Come together"!

Public authorities promote tourism in Loire Valley in English

Within four days, a new website called "Angers Loire Valley" will be opened by the Angers convention bureau. Its aim is to attract the attention of the professionnals of tourism about abilities and interest to organize events in the region. Money is at stake. According to  the sponsors of the website (among them Angers city, Angers Loire Metropole, the chamber of commerce and industry of Maine et Loire), a business tourist spends 150 €, an threefold amount compared to a a classical tourist.

A bilingual meetings planner's guide has been created. Others, related to incoming and incentives as well as sustainable tourism will follow. A few weeks ago, a video dedicated to the promotion of the Loire Valley had been created (and was commented in this blog).

But if a bilingual website is a progress, many websites of public authorities are only in french : this is the case of Angers, Angers Loire Métropole, and more surpringly of th Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Maine et Loire even the Loire Electronic Applications Valley page is in french). And Angers Expo Congrès has only a digest version in english. The Conseil général de Maine et Loire website has an english (among others) version as well as the Office de tourisme d'Angers (eight languages versions).

Critics increase against the celebration of the opening of Angers streetcar line

The official opening of the streetcar line of Angers, planned for june 25th, is in the spot of critics. After Jean-Claude Antonini, the mayor of the city, announced, on june 10th, the cost of a party - 400 000 € - designed to celebrate the start of the running of the line, complains surged from his counterparts in the board of Angers Loire Metropole authority, from the Angers medias and from inhabitants about the excess of such an amount in a period of economical difficulties.

 ALM, which had already approached a Paris communication agency to conceive the event, planned to organize, among others things, a party celebrating the end of the scheme (for 1 500 guests) and an official dinner for 200 "Very important persons".

This "happy end" is at least "in line" with the "derailment" of the costs of the project which dropped from 244 to 344 millions €. Before it was started, Alm had already raised at its maximum the rate (from 1,05% to 1,80%) of the transport tax due by all companies employing more than 9 persons in Angers and surroundings (a money which will not go in the pockets of these). And recently, the Alm authority announced a  new tax enforceable to al the Alm households. Is the celebration of the trolley line works appropriate?