Before leaving Paris, my friend Lisa told me "a story within a story" about she and her cousins finding passages into the 15th century Château d'Angers. Thus, I made time travel my goal while I was there and made a documentary about it (to follow). But first, some words and pictures...
I arrived in Angers at 9:30 AM in the middle of the week with what I thought was an ambitious itinerary and began my visit at the famed Château. I was one of the first people inside right after it opened and wandered around freely for almost two hours. The morning was gorgeous. It had just rained, everything smelled amazing and the birds were singing. Since I have been in France I have never seen/heard so many non-pigeon birds! Unfortunately for me, they were not at all used to human proximity and fled my camera if I even came within full-zoom distance.
Grassy moat leading to the drawbridge
Moss and lichen everywhere!
Fortified port (or adorable miniature castle)
Housed in one of the buildings at the castle is the Tapisserie de l'Apocalypse. To my amusement, the signs leading to it, as well as the sign on the door just said, "Apocalypse". It is exactly what it sounds like: a hall dedicated solely to apocalyptic tapestries completed in the 1300s. They are old (and smell like it) and freaky, but very cool.
Skeleton on a horse
Taking things quite literally
Where the Wild Things Are?
Next I wandered though a nearby neighborhood, not really knowing where I was going and not really caring either. I knew Angers was small enough that I was unlikely to get very lost. Sure enough, after a few minutes I was at the steps of the Cathédrale Saint-Maurice. Inside, a couple of men were screwing around on the very loud organ and laughing about it, which was hilarious and awfully inappropriate. I wondered how they were getting away with it (and whether I might too). I didn't stay long and continued wandering. On the side of the church I found these great statues.
Jesus is totally flirting with that chick.
Next I found my way to the Maison d'Adam, the oldest house in Angers, said to have been built around 1500. Astoundingly, it was still inhabited!
I paused at a crêperie facing the Maison, had a mediocre lunch and then tried to find the Logis Pincé, which houses a collection of art from around the world. I found the place, which looked awesome, but it was closed.
Blast you, gates!
Then I decided to go to the Jardin des Plantes. On my way, I accidentally found Angers' Notre Dame and popped inside for a look. It was completely empty and I could see what looked like a rainbow colored glowing apparatus attached to a metal gate. As I approached, I realized it was just the brilliant colors of the stained glass shining through the gold painted gate. It was otherworldly. And of course, my camera did it no justice, but here's the interior anyway.
Can you hear the angels singing?
The Jardin des Plantes could not have been any more gorgeous. The sun came out right as I entered and stayed out until I left. It contained naughty statues, a broken down church and its very own aviary of parrots and parakeets.
Excuse-moi, madame!
My red friend and his sleepy blue/green friends.
What is this, a fairytale?
After the park, I headed over to the Muséum des Sciences Naturelles, which was actually more like a taxidermy museum.
That was basically it for my first day. I went back to my hotel and slept for a while and then went out and had a terrible dinner at a nearby restaurant.
The next day I killed time at the hotel until I had to check out, knowing that I would probably run out of stuff to do. I started the day at the Cimitière de l'Est, which is supposed to be comparable to Père-Lachaise in Paris (but it's not). For one thing, only French people would recognize the names of the "famous" people buried there. For another thing, it's not quite as old and thus lacks the same crumbly charm of its Parisian counterpart. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.
There were lots of downed trees due to an invasive bird species.
Stone and moss
Funerary foreclosure
After the cemetery, I headed to the side of the city that lies west of the Loire river. My intention was to visit the Eglise de la Trinité, but it was closed. However, I accidentally took a wrong turn and wandered though a back alley and into the cloister and then quickly wandered out once I realized where I was. I decided to stop in for lunch at a place selling wine, figuring that if anyone knew anything about good food in this town it would be the wine people.
The place was gorgeous, decorated with medium brown wood, wine bottles and hip art.
Che et moi
Cod on top of a red cabbage salad with chorizo sauce
Mango/coconut cake in pear sauce
And here's la Trinité right before I invaded her cloister.
After my attempt at visiting la Trinité was foiled, I decided to get lost on the side streets and just hoped I'd eventually find my way to the city's old hospital, which now houses the Musée de Jean Lurçat. Appropriately, it is filled with Jean Lurçat's tapestries. Some of them were cool, but most of them looked like psychedelic velvet Elvises.
Old-fashioned E.R.
Pharmacy
Since it was "free" I also went to the modern tapestry museum next door which was featuring artists from Catalonia, including one Picasso. Most of it, however, was total crap.
One of Lurçat's works that I really liked.
I had planned to venture out to the nearby lake after this but the weather was too crappy. So, having seen all there was to see on the east side, I headed back over to the west side in search of a dry place to rest my feet. First I stopped in at a famous-ish chocolatier whose name I will not even bother to advertise because they were snobby assholes. If you are in Angers, go to the little guys instead, not the one with the blue awning. I have to say, though, the chocolate was pretty good.
Then I considered stopping in at the Musée des Beaux Arts, but the previous museum had put me off of art completely, beau or no.
Here you can see Abbaye Saint-Aubin d'Angers (closed) and a large profile trying to point me into the art museum. No thank you.
I made my way back over to the Cathedral Saint-Maurice, pretended to be a proper Catholic by dipping my fingers in the holy water and crossing myself, and helped myself to a seat. It was empty most of the time that I was there except for a few tourists that came and went. Since I wanted to stay as long as possible, I decided to hunch over as if in prayer and get some writing done. After a while, a man noticed what I was doing and approached me, offering to explain the place to me. I declined and decided it was time to leave.
Since everything was pretty much closed by then and I had several hours until my train, I stopped into a café for two... very... long... cups... of... tea... After my tea, I headed to the train station, stopping on the way for a sub-par kebab dinner (nobody beats my guy down the block in Paris). I had an hour and a half to kill at the station so I bought a sudoku book and tried to distract myself with it. Instead, I ended up overhearing a conversation between two very young mormon missionaries: one was telling his very bored partner about how "some black kid" (he repeated this description several times) came up to him and told him he was having problems with school, especially math. In response to this problem, the missionary told him about the church. So, if I become a mormon God will cure me of my math homework? I wish I had known about this in high school.
The train ride home was uneventful and I arrived to a very sweet Charlie waiting up for me.
And now, as promised, a film about time travel!
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