Angers

Angers is a city in the west of France. Around 160,000 inhabitants live inside the city and 300,000 live in the metropolitan area.

It is the capital of the historical province called Anjou. Today, the name of Anjou is Maine-et-Loire. The inhabitants of Angers and of Anjou are called 'angevins'.

The city existed before the Roman Empire. After the Roman conquest, the city was called Juliomagus. Angers was an important French city during the Middle-Ages. There is one of the bigger castles of Europe in the city.

It is now the 16th city of France (for its population). It is an economic center, a touristic and cultural town. Many festivals happen every year in the city (film festival 'Premiers plans', street festivals 'Tours de scène' and the famous 'Accroches-coeurs'). It has many museums. The museum of Beaux-Arts (a famous Art museum) and "Apocalypse Tapestry" (the oldest and largest collection of medieval tapestries in the world) are very famous.

There are two universities. More than 17,000 students go to the 'Université d'Angers' (a state university) and 12,000 go to the 'Université Catholique de l'Ouest' (a private catholic university). The 'École supérieure des sciences commerciales d'Angers' is one of the most prestigious business school in France.

Transport
 Road: Motorway A11 to Paris ~295 km and to Nantes ~90 km
 Railway: TGV (very quick train) from Angers-St Laud station to Paris in 92 minutes only
 International Airports: Angers-Marcé, Nantes-Atlantique

Sister cities
Angers is twinned with:
  Haarlem, Netherlands, since 1964
  Osnabrück, Germany, since 1964
  Bamako, Mali, since 1974
  Pisa, Italy, since 1982
  Wigan, United Kingdom, since 1988
  Södertälje, Sweden, since 1998
  Seville, Spain, since 2000
  Yantai, China, since 2006