Angers City Focus | Loire Gardens & Art of Living | EUROtoday

Jennifer Ladonne explores Angers, the place she discovers a Loire backyard of earthly delights…

A well-known Sixteenth-century poet referred to as Joachim du Bellay extolled “la doux Angevine” – the sweetness of life in Angers and the Anjou area, a sentiment as true at the moment as ever. A thriving college city and cultural powerhouse, Angers recurrently tops France’s A most-liveable-cities record. Its placement on the confluence of the Maine and Loire rivers ensures that luminosity and delicate environment for which the Loire is known.

It’s a panorama ripe for enjoyment: biking, climbing, boating and lazy afternoons of relaxed eating in one in every of Angers’ laid-back riverside taverns are a lifestyle right here. Set within the midst of a wealthy fluvial plain, the countryside bordering Angers is resplendent with orchards, fruit and vegetable gardens, huge flower beds a neighborhood business and acre upon acre of vineyards.

Angers bears the traces of its wealthy historical past because the historic seat of the Plantagenet dynasty and the Dukes of Anjou. The royal residence, the Château d’Angers, is a superb place to begin your go to. The putting medieval fortress, in-built striated layers of native black slate and white tuffeau, harbors a swish Gothic chapel, formal gardens, sculpted hedges and fortified partitions, providing sweeping views of the town and river.

But Angers’ best treasure is lodged in a state-of-the-art gallery within the stomach of the citadel. The Apocalypse Tapestry, the world’s oldest and largest narrative tapestry, depicts the Book of Revelations as advised in wondrous element by St John the Divine. The epic 103m tapestry unfolds in 70 double-hung panels in a hushed, twilit hall, its monsters and angels, saints and sinners shimmering in wonderful element. The art work, commissioned by the Duke of Anjou in 1375 from a workshop in Paris, took seven years to finish. Although it was duly celebrated in its time, it ended up in items, repurposed as rugs, cattle heaters and backyard tarps till it was painstakingly restored, the swish symmetry of its Renaissance towers and the class of its Gothic figures stay seen. Inside, you will discover beautiful Thirteenth- to Fifteenth-century stained glass home windows, a gorgeously carved Baroque altar cover and an imposing organ.

RETAIL THERAPY

Nearby, the Musée des Beaux Arts d’Angers’ assortment is admired for its French masters and a tremendous assortment of Italian and Flemish work, with a bit on the historical past of Angers, particularly its distilleries (we’ll get to these). The decrease ground, dedicated to notable up to date works, was exhibiting an exciting set up of digital artworks by French artist Miguel Chevalier on the time of my go to.

The museum’s café-restaurant is a useful place to cease for a superb espresso and a pastry or a gourmand meal earlier than heading to the Galerie David d’Angers. The Angers native’s realist sculptures, discovered within the Louvre and the Panthéon in Paris, are housed within the Twelfth-century Toussaint Abbey, retrofitted with a hovering glass ceiling that floods the area with gentle. A two-minute detour up Rue Toussaint to Place Sainte-Croix results in Maison d’Adam, the town’s greatest preserved medieval half-timbered home, coated in carved biblical sculptures, with some naughty ones thrown in.

You can do some purchasing one avenue over on Rue Saint-Aubin, which is residence to high quality French chains and Benoît Chocolats, the place you should buy Angers-born chocolatier Anne Benoit’s well-known Caramandes, melt-in-the-mouth triangles of chocolate-coated praline, in addition to different confections, pastries and the scrumptious rum-soaked desserts Nantais. Across the road at Cave Saint-Aubin, replenish on Angers’ greatest collection of native pure, natural and biodynamic wines.

GLASS RAISE

For a firsthand style of Angers’ iconic beverage, head (17 minutes by bus or seven minutes by automobile) to the Carré Cointreau the place the well-known orange-flavored liqueur is made in a surprisingly compact and welcoming distillery. A guided tour takes you previous a century and a half of promoting poster artwork, via the enormous copper stills, to a classy tasting room for a refreshing Cointreau cocktail. Afterwards, you may select from a tempting collection of Cointreau-spiked delicacies and specialty bottles to take residence.

In 1885, pharmacist Émile Giffard invented Menthe-Pastille, a refreshing elixir comprised of mint important oil. You can style this and a powerful array of liqueurs – with and with out alcohol – distilled from each possible herb, fruit and flower, together with the well-known Guignolet, a luscious ruby-red liqueur comprised of wild Anjou cherries. These and scores of different equally scrumptious liqueurs may be sampled and bought at L’Espace Menthe-Pastille.

If wine is extra your factor, you have come to the correct place. Among the Anjou area’s 19 or so appellations, elegant Savennières, a lightweight however characterful white wine produced in small portions from the Chenin Blanc grape, is especially prized. A couple of miles exterior Angers within the charming village of Savennières, set on the Loire River, Château d’Epiré welcomes guests for tastings in a Twelfth-century Romanesque church that additionally homes its wine cellars.

While in Angers, experiencing one or two of the town’s 20 taverns is a should. At these lazy riverside cafés, immortalized by the Impressionists, you may savor a hearty French meal and a glass of wine on a summer season terrace and dance the night away to dwell music. The Destination Angers web site affords a useful record and map of all of the close by guinguettes in Béhuard, Bouchemaine (on the confluence of the Maine and Loire) and charming Île Saint-Aubin.

The islands provide a style of the huge pure sources simply minutes exterior the town. Île Saint-Aubin, lodged between three rivers to the north of the town, is nicknamed the inexperienced lung of Angers for its untouched nature and continues to be reached the old school means by a chain-pulled ferry. To the south, the Île Béhuard is residence to an enthralling village (inhabited solely in summer season and autumn, as rising Loire waters typically limit entry in winter) and the Eleventh-century Nôtre-Dame de Béhuard church, a pilgrimage web site recognized for its eponymous black Madonna. Both islands provide loads of wild nature to be loved through a circuit of climbing trails.

Angers is a significant hotspot for biking, served by the Loire à Vélo route, a principal biking route of France and Europe which celebrated its twenty fifth anniversary this yr, in addition to 1,000km of gravel routes. Angers’ yearly Nature is Bike pageant attracts cyclists from close to and much for a four-day celebration of biking in nature, with boards, workshops, enjoyable occasions and leisure actions for cyclists of all ages.

Angers can be superb for strolling, with a largely pedestrianized middle and far to see by simply wandering. In the town middle you will discover some Art Deco buildings, notably the mosaic-clad Maison Bleue, and on Saturdays, Angers’ bustling native produce market takes place on the Place Leclerc, whereas Place Imbach throughout the road typically has a flea market with some antiques. However you select to meander via this pleasant Loire metropolis, there’s at all times a hidden nook or an enthralling riverside guinguette ready to be found.

ESSENTIAL ANGERS

GETTING THERE

BY AIR

Fly from London Gatwick to Nantes Atlantique airport with easyJet; it is 40 minutes from Nantes to Angers by TGV.

www.nantes.aeroport.fr/en

BY TRAIN AND CAR

Angers is a couple of 90-minute direct TGV prepare experience from Paris Montparnasse, or a three-hour drive (185 miles) from Paris.

WHERE TO EAT AND STAY

Noirieux Castle

Just exterior Angers in a pastoral setting, the romantic Château de Noirieux, surrounded by a beautiful park with a pool and spa, embraces a number of historic buildings courting from the Fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. Here you will discover deluxe rooms in a chic ivy-clad manor home and among the best eating places round.

chateaudenoirieux.com/en

L’Attilio restaurant at Châteaux de Noirieux

Markus Ideally situated within the middle of city, this discreet 4-star boutique resort has all the pieces you want for a serene and comfy keep: spacious, well-appointed rooms, a top quality café-restaurant, a beautiful outside terrace, and a genuinely heat welcome.

www.markus.fr/en

A Girl and Skittles

At this stylish, loft-like wine bar and restaurant, with a spacious terrace, you may dine on scrumptious seasonal dishes and savor a wine record of 1,000 wines, with decisions from the Loire and afar. There are loads of choices by the glass, too.

www.fb.com/unefilleetdesquilles

La Réserve For a meal with a view, this buzzy restaurant affords a spacious eating room and outside terrace on the highest of the Théatre Le Quai with sweeping vistas of Angers and past.

www.lareserveangers.fr

TOURIST OFFICE

www.destination-angers.com

From France Today Magazine

Lead picture credit score: Aerial_view_of_Angers_in_autumn-Copyright-Alexandre_Lamoureux-Destination_Angers