English inhabitants of Angers toasted the new royal couple

The moment was waited for a long time and the English hosts living in the surroundings of Angers have planned all the details in order the evening in the honour of the marriage of Prince William and his wife, the duchesse of Wales, be a success. Dozens of Union Jack and some pictures of the "just married" were hanged to the ceilings of the dining room where, ont a tv set, the images of the royal wedding day were transmitted. In order to emphasize the English caracter of the party, all the guests, English and French were dressed with an English touch.


                                                                          Many of the comments were about the choice of England to keep his monarchistic regime and the likelyhood Prince William be the direct successor of Queen Elizabeth II instead of his father, Charles, prince of Wales, who could have disappointed the subjects of Her Gracious Majesty because of his infidelity to the late Lady Diana. Nobody raised obextions that England stays as a monarchy which, thanks to Wolliam, may become more contemporary than before.


So the happiness the royal wedding brought in England had visibly crossed the Channel at the end of the dinner when came the time, after the jelly fruit salad, to toast to the new royal couple. In several other places of Angers, English speaking people celebrated the event. That was the cas at the English speakng library in Angers and, outside the city, in the region of Baugé where a couple of Brithish residents in that town organize every year an opera festival.

The royal wedding of Prince William and Kate celebrated in Angers

As many locations in the world, some places of Angers city will live to the United Kingdom hour with the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton celebrated in Westminster Abbey on friday 29 April. Many bars of the city, and especially the anglophone bars, will welcome people eager to choose such an event to amuse themselves.


Because a royal wedding is a very special moment in British, as well as Commonwealth, public life. One of the main place of interest for that event will be the English speaking library of Angers (on Boisnet street) or, may be My Favorite Place, an English tea room, located on L'Espine street. In the first place, dozens or may be hundreds of persons, could gather in order to watch on tv the British Broadcasting Service from 10 to 12 am and from 13 to 18 pm. Coffee, tea and scones will be served free on friday morning!


Enghish humour is, involuntarily, not absent of the coverages. For example in the article Angers Mag Info dedicated to the issue, the editor wrote : "it will be difficult or even impossible to stay away from that royal wedding 'Made in Brittany'"... It's true Brittany is nearer to Angers than Great Britain!

New Portuguese workforce is arriving in Angers for construction sites

Credit : Angers Loire Métropole

According to members of Portuguese families established in Angers, building companies working on real-estate projects at the North of the city would recruit, in Portugal, local workers in order to hire them in that city. Job ads would have beeen published or broadcasted in Portuguese medias, told these families who are in touch with these temporary workers to find homes for their fellow citizens. One of these families have been approached by the workers building companies hired in ordrer to work in France. Some of them have had to leave their native countries, one was manager of a manufactory of furnitures, because of the economic crisis there.

These facts seems to mean that the French companies do not meet the adequate workforce in France where the real-estate sector looks quite busy. Every pedestrian or driver can realize the presence of cranes in all the districts of the city and especially in the Saint-Aubin one where these persons were recruited.


But the number of construction sites in Angers could trigger, later, difficulties for future rents. That was pointed out by the chairman of the real-estate agents of Maine-et-Loire who recently expressed his fear regarding the future : "We have had too much constructions in a short time. That unbalanced the market. We have full of flats available for renting. About 3 000 are presently empty. That's too much".

Angers Loire Valley not endangered with English words

Credit AngersVille Actu

Was it a mistake or was it a meaningful change in the uses of Angers Ville Actu, an "Independant and Participative portal" dedicated to Angers local news? Recently, at the top of the welcome page, readers saw an ads about the British Red Cross, entirely written in English. Obviously, it was designed for English readers. Frequently, Englishs words are used in ads, texts of articles and, since a long time, on the front side of stores and companies.

Credit British Red Cross

But the presence of the British Red Cross banner in Angers Ville Actu is a little bit surprising, whike it is nice for English speaking people living in Angers. So the use of English seems to accelerate in the city which was favorable that Angers Loire Metropole becomes Angers Loire Valley. But that englicism led to others when Angers Loire Valley granted recently its aids to local companies : among them there was the Gohe Fashion Accessories, a Angers company...

Credit Angers Loire Métropole

So may be the territorial authority woukd be well inspired to amplify that natural and fashionable trend. It could promote the use of English one day per year. That could enhance atteaction for that language and create a distinct touch from all cities Angers must confront to attract resources and wealth in the province.

New waves on Angers tv channels

Credit : Angers Ville Actu

After Angers 7, the local television channel, disappeared a year ago, Angers city didn't get tv on Hertzian channel. But two projects have emerged on interned. On october 2010, Angers TV show it's face on the web (but its programs are suspended because of the overhal of the web site. More recently, another attempt took place with Télé Angers.

Credit Wikipedia

Angers TV claims its intellectual affiliation to the participative information network : the website opens through a window called "The medias reporters" and covers in its more recent articles about the fiscal policy of Angers and the France semi-final soccer cup between the Sco and Psg. Compared to Hertzian tv channel, web tv would demands much less investments which were fatal to Angers 7.

Credit : Angers TV

That channel was liquidated in may 2010 after one of its main shareholders, the Sipa Group-Ouest France decided to withdraw while the city of Angers was unable to increase its participation to the capital. The new web Télé Angers would be a generalist channel with programs on policy, sports, culture and cooking.

A new departure from Fleur d'eau suggests changes could be on way in commercial structures all over Angers

Credit : wikipedia

The Nicolas Wines brand will soon leave the commercial center Fleur d'eau where it settled six years ago. One of the invoked reason to that transfer is the level of the rent of the space at Fleur d'eau. If the new destination of Nicolas is known, the name of the successor of Nicolas has not been unveiled, if a successor exists... A few weeks ago, it was said in local medias that another shop was considering its departure from Fleur d'eau...

Credit Atoll

The question set by these moves could concern the viability of that commercial structure which succeeded to the former commercial center Les Halles, closed in 2003. In fact the competition between commercial equipment will become harsher : the new Atoll will open at the beginning of next year at Beaucouzé and a redevelopment of the commercial center Grand Maine is scheduled for 2014.

Many wonder about the the ability of the purchasing power of inhabitants (present and future in Angers) to fuel sufficient turnover for the stores of all those equipments and the behaviour of storekeepers and customers to do shopping in down town. Difficulties at Fleur d'eau would damage the image of dynamism the city want to promote with its new brand Angers Loire Valley.

Angers town hall bans takeaway sales of alcohols in down town after 10 pm

Credit : The Guardian

Angers Town hall published about the 21st April a municipal decree forbiding the sale of alcohol in down town after 10 pm. But, the measure will not be implemented right now because town wants, first, to inform the public as well as the storekeepers who will receive a letter on that point. According to Jean-Pierre Chauvelon, deputy mayor in charge of public security, the sale of alcohols to take away will be banned in every place where a night activity exists.

Credit : Wikipedia

Such a policy has become unavoidable because of the troubles in down town. Some restaurants of inner city would complain about the loss of sales : some customers would not dare to come in down town at night because of the insecure conditions. For a long time, inhabitants of the center of Angers complains about their daily life : noise in street at night, vehicles damaged, problems enhanced by the difficult access to that part of the town for mothers with kids or elder persons.

According to owners of bars in Angers down town, the superstores are responsible of that. People, on every weekend, buys packs of beer and alcohols (they mix!). All over France, authorities try to deal with the binge drinking, a social trend which could spiral out of control. Some binge drinkings are sometimes organized by groups of Facebookers. One had been cancelled last year in Angers.

Streetcar : the local politicians, left and right, must face up the financial facts

"Is the streetcar responsible of a tax?", questionned a local media in its copy published on thursday 21st April. If in the article, the media give detais about the drift of the costs of the first line, the question seems to mean that the street car project fell from the sky without any political intervention. The correct question would be : "a new tax, is the Angers Loire Métropole responsible of it?". And the answer is, without any doubt : yes.


In its actual configuration, the increase of the cost rise is 21% (from 238 to 288 millions €). In order to finance that overcost, Angers Loire Métropole decided to increase the transportation tax, paid by private companies and to increase the business tax (but that decision was cancelled by the administrative court). But that was not sufficient, Angers Loire Métrople had to borrow 25 millions € more than it had foreseen (200 instead of 175 millions €). In order to be able to pay off its debt, the only way the local authority has is a new tax paid by the households, yet over taxed.


The local politicians from left or right, had to face up yesterday to the unavoidable consequence of their choice. Let us hope they will remind it for a while. The second line is postponed till 2020. Not the tax increase...

The Angers Sco can now transform a defeat in semi-final French soccer cup to an opportunity to qualify to an upper level

News analysis. - The road of Angers Sco toward the final of the French soccer cup ended face to Paris on wednesday 20th April. For a very long time, the local club never achieved such a level in one of the two main soccer competitions in France. The exploit is even more important because of the internal difficulties of the chairman of the Sco, Willy Bernard, accused of misusing the money of the club for purposes linked to his own companies, and even for a personnal purpose.

Probably, many of the supporters of the club are disappointed. But the Angers Sco faced fierce opposition and sport contains always some part of chance. During the days  before the semi-final, local press of Angers noticed that the inhabitants didn't express a visible support to the players.

That is probably link to the traditionnal discretion and restraint which caracterize the behaviour of the Angers population (qualities which were pointed out when Angers Loire Métropole showed its new brand : Angers Loire Valley). But the most durable achievements are often built in silence. On the weeks to come, Angers Sco has a "window" to qualify at the upper level of French soccer. The fact the club will not have several irons in the fire could enhance its chances to achieve that goal. In that way, the departure, with distinctions, of the Frenche soccer cup, could be an opporunity fo a new adventure.

Angers Loire Valley, the first step on a long road to attractivity

About 300 hundred persons, mostly most of them in business connection with Angers Loire métropole gathered on thuesday 19th April at the Le Quai theatre to attend the launch of the new name of that territorial authority : Angers Loire Valley. The purpose of the sponsors of that change is to work on the name of Angers Loire Valley as if it was a brand, designed to be sold in France and abroad. 

If, according to Jean-Claude Antonini, chairman of Angers Loire Valley, the Loire valley is well known all over the world, because of the ranking of that province in Unesco list, Angers is often impossible to localize on a map of France by the foreign people who could wish to come to Angers, for leisure or business purposes. "So, said Mr. Antonini, a new brand could help Angers to attract people because nowadays our province has to compete with others to get wealth and jobs". If the Angevine mildness is probably the most recognized symbol of Angers and its province, "that is not a handicap; on the contrary, it's an advantage because the attraction of a territory depends directly on the quality of life people benefit there".

But that new brand, whose "the anglicized word "valley" is linked to the domination of English language all over the world", pointed out Jean-Claude Antonini, could be demanding. As a new brand, it will be probably necessary to decline it on a wide range of objects and opportunities and, from that point of view the evening lauch was a little bit tasteless. For example, it could have been appropriate to let John Axelrod, conductor of the Oppl speaking in English to express its experience of Angers city. 

But, may be for the first time, a French city recognizes a fact : English language gains the upper hand over French and, instead of fighting stubbornly against that reality. It's a lucid and clever policy.  

Angers town hall bans a performance at the Mpt Monplaisir for possible trouble to public order

Angers town hall made unforceable a judgment of the Angers district court. Jean-Claude Antonini, mayor of Angers, signed a municipal decree on monday 18th april which makes impossible the show of the humorist Dieudonné at the Maison pour tous of Monplaisir.


A few weeks ago, that Mpt had signed with a private company, Phone Mobile, a contract booking the auditorium for the humorist Dieudonné. The Mpt tried to dispute the lawfullness of such a contract, arguing its co-signer didn't mentionned the guest. The court dismissed the argument, because the contract ot the Mpt didn't consider it was necessary for Phone Mobile to mention the guest of the performance.



According to Jean-claude Antonini, the performance of Dieudonné, sentenced on March 17th 2011 by the Paris court of appeal for anti-semitic insults, "may disrupt the public peace in a local context yet nervous" and said the case was "pathetic". If the Angers district court only thought on juridical aspects of the case, the mayor of Angers considered its pratical aspects and, in the press release, forbade the town councillors to express themselves on that issue. Jean-Claude Antonini doesn't want debates nor with Dieudonné, nor with the Angers court of appeal where a judgement regarding the Sco case is waited.

The Arthurs theatrical classes saw Shakespeare's England on Seine

  About 60 students training in different classes of theatre given by the Angers company Les ArthursComédie Française. It was a sunny and busy day. Gathered at five o'clock am, the classes were in Paris at ten for a visit of the district where Molière started in the theatre carreer. After a brief visit of the Saint-Eustache church where the author was baptised, the students walked throughout the Louvre Palace where Molière performed his first piece  in front of the French king Louis 14th before travelling in Western French provinces.

Then, they enjoyed a visit at the Comédie Française. This place is full of souvenirs about the french history theatre and has kept vivid traditions since the institution was founded (1680). A theatrical atmosphere can be breathed in the old building  : pictures of past famous actors, sculptures, some of them realized by David d'Angers, and the red colour of the carpets and curtains embodies that attractive universe for many teenagers who came all the way from Angers. A curiosity is proudly exhibited at the corner of a gallery : the armchair where Molière died playing "The imaginery invalid", "the only and unique souvenir the Comédie Française got from him", said the guide.

The travel inside the contemporary France of Molière was enriched by an insight look of England history through "The merry wives of Windsor", the 17th piece of Shakespeare staged at the French theatre. According to a Comédie Française leaflet handed to the audience, at the begining of the 19th century English actors played Shakespeare masterworks "in their original version". Hopefully, the most recent French versions of the intrigue are faithful to the original text which, by some aspects, remains audacious and even disconnected to the time during which it was written. Moreover, the living experience of watching such a performance helped the Angevins apprentice to discover the mental and physical involvement of the comedians to play the characters.

"The merry wives of Windor" depincts the English society of Shakespeare where, writes the Comédie Française, women and their husbands aren't young anymore, while the society has seen its money vanished, the bourgeoisie is in crisis and the poors are poorer than before : "All of that is very contemporary", notes the Comédie Française. The theatre students came back to Angers after a return from a past still present... 

Angers students in theatre in the Moliere footsteps

Credit : Wikipedia

About 50 Angevins enrolled for theatre lectures at Les Arthurs company will go on sunday 17 april to Paris for a discovery of the universe of the stage and a return in Moliere footsteps over the capital. That little travel is an award for training with diligently from september till june in the tiny theatre where Les Arthurs play, in Cordelle street, down town Angers.


They will walk through the Paris where Moliere lived : the Saint-Eustache church where he was baptised to the Richelieu street, his last home. Throughout that walk, they will discover the lifetime of that man who is still the patron saint of the Comedie francaise.

Credit : La Comedie Francaise

Moreover, the students, some of them are young, others are adults, some of them are even retired and thees last are probably the most courageous to launch themselves in that training, will see a piece written by William Shakespeare, "The merry wives of Windsor" at the Comedie francaise.


The rendez-vous for the students in Angers city is at 5 am, at Moliere square...

The hidden "Holy gold" of the "INCAbitants"

News analysis.- "The holy gold of the Incas" is not only a fascinating object of historical research, it is also, involuntarily, an appropriate issue of the Angers fair, due to open its doors to public on 23rd April. If the treasures of the Inca civilization attracted greedy Spanish conquistadors, the Angers inhabitants, and may be a lot of people in contemporary France, hold unconsciously "holy gold" under an unuasual materialization.

The saving of energy as well as natural - and exhaustible - resources is more and more present in many aspects of their daily life. For example, in urban and real-estate fields, progress is achieved in order to save energy and for maintaining the purchasing power. Regarding the household-waste sorting, what is at stake is the reemployment, the valorization of materials formerly unusable in order to heat buildings where people live and work. 
 
So, in that view, Angers inhabitants could detain, even if they aren't aware of that, a new form of gold. Their future could depend more and more on their ability to  recycle raw materials and so to live as well as before and less costly than formerly. It is not only, even if that is essential, a question of economic competitiveness, but also the self-preservation of their way of life.

Households' wastes : Angers want the inhabitants "to try"

The 82nd edition of the Angers exhibition will start on saturday 23rd april on a double focus on the Inca civilization and the ecological behaviour the inhabitants should adopt. First of all, the exhibition will dedicate room to the ecological products. Eighty exhibitors will show to the public biological, local and sustainable products. And the Angers Loire Métropole authority will try to increase public awareness to the houshold-waste sorting. But more than 500 exhibitors will be available on a wide range of aspects of daily life.

Credit Angers city

Responsible for the treatment of households wastes of Angers inhabitants, the Alm authority brought into service at the beginning of the year the Biopole center, at Saint-Barthélémy, in order to give value to wastes. The process, called methanisation, transforms organic materials in compost and gas. But the efficient running of the Biopole depends on the quality of the Angers inhabitants' household-waste sorting. 

For that purpose, the stand of Angers Loire Métropole will evaluate the situation of the respect, by the inhabitants, of the instructions the public authority gave, thanks to quizz and "speed daTRIng" (a wordplay from "job dating") about the the fair sorting. The organizers themselves wanted the exhibition be ecologically respectful : its own wastes will be recycled.

Angers Loire Métropole will collect 10 millions € more in taxes. How much in savings?

News analysis. - "Why to increase the receipts?" will be at the center of the vote of the representatives of Angers Loire métropole for the 2012 budget on 17th april. The question, set at the end of a report dedicated to the budget of Angers Loire Métropole (and published on the website of Angers city), is in fact a justification about the increase of local taxes paid by households and companies. The (official) answer is : "in order to maintain a good level of investments and, in the same time, to limit the use of borrowing". 

But there is a contradiction in the arguments of the authority. In the same text, Angers Loire Métropole writes "As soon as 2012, it will be possible to lower the level of investment and to concentrate it on essential purposes for the future of the territory" and, a little bit further, points out the necessity of keeping "a good level of investments". Where is the truth?

The problem is in fact Angers Loire Métropole has planned to much expenses and its receipts, because of the crisis, are decreasing. So it is up to the inhabitants to foot the bill as well as the workers, because the money the local companies will pay to the public authority will not be distributed in wages... Instead of increasing the taxes, the resolution is to lower the expenses. But if the amount of new receipts is known - 10 millions € - the amount of the savings is not...

The second street car line could just remain a desire for a while

According to the financial forecastings of 2011-2014 of Angers city, nothing is planned for the second streetcar line linking Beaucouzé to the exhibitions park, in Saint-sylvain d'Anjou. In fact, Angers Loire métropole, the authority gathering about 30 towns (Angers and around) is submitted for a while to a budgetary caution. The président of Alm can't rely on the national state because its own finances are in very bad conditions.

What Angers city could only plan is to finance some technical surveys about the second line which could serve from Beaucouzé, Belle Beille university, Patton avenue, Le Quai theatre, then Saint-Laud railway station in order to join the first line on Foch boulevard before turning Louis Gain street, Grand-Pigeon and Monplaisir district and , from there, going to Saint-Sylvain. Its lengh will be 16 km (12 km for the first line and an overall cost of 287 millions €).

On short end, Angers city prepares with a lot of local artistic partners the inauguration day of the first line, scheduled to saturday, 25th june at 12 am at Ralliement square. Entertainings are planned the same day at 7 pm. And, just for ten days, the streetcar will be free. The opening ceremony of the second line is not foresee before 2020...

Angers hosts an exhibition on Hervé Bazin : Underwood and understood

Credit : BU Angers

Angers talks again of Hervé Bazin for his hundredth birthday. An exhibition about this famous French writer will take place in the city on the weeks to come. One of the testimony of the lifetime of Bazin the inhabitants will see in one of the museum of the city (where Bazin is born and died) is his typewriter; the Underwood with which he wrote his books. The machine Bazin spent so much time which looks severe and cold. No fantasy wafts from that metallic device which nevertheless allowed Bazin to depict some of the most critical portrayals of French, and not especially Angers, bourgeoisie.

Credit picture Wikipedia

The Underwood Hervé Bazin was fond of remains one of the symbols of the world literature. Manufactured by an American company located in New York, the typewriter Bazin used is considered as the first widely successful modern typewriter. Many American authors like Scot Fitzgerald, Jack Kerouac or William Faulkner worked with Underwood. The last wife of the author reached to save the machine of her late husband and is pictured with it in the daily Le Courrier de l'Ouest. 


This commemoration of Bazin birth could trigger a more important interest from the city to one of its most famous representatives. In fact, there is no way or public equipment in Angers using the name of Bazin. With help from Maine et Loire authorities, the university library of Angers preempted 22 manuscripts and about 9000 letters from Bazin in 2004.

Rejoicings around the marriage of Prince Williams in Angers surroundings

Credit picture wikipedia

Many weddings ceremonies take place on spring in Angers and elsewere. But few ceremonies will celebrate a marriage which, in fact, will be organized abroad and which involve famous persons. Such a wedding will nevertheless give rise to a party in Angers surroundings during that month. On Friday 29th April, the marriage of his Royal Highness Prince Williams of Wales, KG, with Miss Catherine Middleton will gather subjects of Her Gracious Majesty, the Queen Elizabeth II, with French relatives and friends, nationals of the former kingdom of the Plantagenets dynasty, from which William is a descendant.

Arms of Henri II, king of England, count of Anjou

The purpose of that party is to make the guests travel over the Channel without leaving their Anjou province. So all the English customs, dress code, drinks as food and of course language, will have to be fulfilled. The party will run on a garden terrace above a river near Angers in a real-estate where the green is as beautilful as the one of a golf field.

Only the schedule will differ : the royal marriage is planned at 11.00 am while the Angers rejoicings will take place from 7.30 pm. But "Uniform, morning coat and lounge suit" are requested. English royal etiquette...

A Favre d'Anne "Véri Fraich" fast food on Foch boulevard could be under way

An old building in works on Foch boulevard could host soon a new fast-food formula. The famous Favre d'Anne, a gastronomical restaurant of Angers city, plans to open there a second "Veri Fraich", a fast-food catering, which is yet present in Terra Botanica since april 2010. Pascal Favre d'Anne, trained by Marc Veyrat (a famous cooker specialized in molecular gastronomy), was awarded in 2008 as a young talent and with a star in the famous Michelin guide, will offer on Foch boulevard a quick but upmarket cooking.


If the "Veri Fraich" may have a double meaning. "Véri" can come from the English word "Very" or can summerize the French word "vérité". In fact, "Véri" could have these two significations. Because Pascal Favre d'Anne should intend to cook skillful and eccentric hamburgers thanks to fresh products "Made in Anjou". "Véri Fraich" is a brand which associates "an american concept to the French quality".

Credit Pictures Veri'Fraich and Terra Botanica

After the Ralliement square, the Foch boulevard will get, thanks to young businessmen, its second wind. Having hosted a financial company for a long time, the building was, since a few years falling into decay. An Irish named George Wash, in love with Angers city, planned to open in that building of 600 m2 with a 250 m2 inner terrace, a luxury hotel.