Angoulême

Angoulême is a commune, the capital of the Charente department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France. The city is nicknamed the “balcony of the southwest”.

Angoulême is called “Ville de l’Image” which means literally “City of the Image”.The commune has been awarded four flowers by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition of cities and villages in Bloom.

Government
Country	France
Region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Charente
Canton	Angoulême-1, 2 and 3
Mayor (2020–2026)	Xavier Bonnefont
Area¹	21.85 km² (8.44 sq mi)
Population (2017-01-01)	41,740
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)

Geography

Angoulême is an Acropolis city located on a hill overlooking a loop of the Charente limited in area upstream by the confluence of the Touvre and downstream by the Anguienne and Eaux Claires.

Location and access

By train: the Paris-Bordeaux line, served mainly by TGV, passes through Angoulême and the TER Limoges-Saintes provides connections.
By water: although the river Charente is currently only used for tourism, it was a communication channel, especially for freight, until the 19th century and the port of l’Houmeau was very busy.

The Angoulême-Cognac International Airport is at Brie-Champniers.

Districts

Old Angoulême is the old part between the ramparts and the town centre with winding streets and small squares.

The city centre is also located on the plateau and was portrayed by Honoré de Balzac in “The Lost Illusions” as “the height of grandeur and power”. There is a Castle, a town hall, a prefecture, and a cathedral with grand houses everywhere. Unlike Old Angoulême, however, the entire city centre was greatly rebuilt in the 19th century.

Surrounding the city were five old faubourgs: l’Houmeau, Saint-Cybard, Saint-Martin, Saint-Ausone, and la Bussatte. Today the city has fifteen districts.

Economy

Angoulême is a centre of the paper-making and printing industry, with which the town has been connected since the 14th century. Papermaking is favoured because of the uniform temperature and volume of the water year-round, partly due to the Touvre River, which joins the Charente at Angoulême.

The Touvre is the second largest river with an underground source in France after the River Sorgue (Fontaine-de-Vaucluse). Former pumping station to bring up water from the Touvre. A trout fishery is located at the source and a pumping station supplies the drinking water needs of Angoulême.Most of the paper mills are situated on the banks of watercourses in the neighbourhood of the town. Cardboard for packaging, as well as fine vellum for correspondence, have been produced in quantity.

Former pumping station to bring up water from the Touvre

The economy of the modern town also is supplemented by annual tourist events and festivals. For example, the printers and paper-makers, whose industry relied on intricate machinery, became skilled mechanics and among the first to become fascinated with the motor car in the late 19th century. Motor trials were held regularly, starting on the long straight road through Puymoyen, now a suburb.

The town has been closely associated with motor trials and racing. The Circuit des Remparts (see below) is held annually, one of the last such street-racing course in France, together with Pau (and Monaco). In addition to local heroes, internationally known racing drivers, such as Juan Manuel Fangio, José Froilán González have been regular participants. The cars which they drove frequently are presented at the modern event. The hotel and restaurant trade receives a considerable boost from the races.

Subsidiary industries, such as the manufacture of machinery, electric motors and wire fabric, are of considerable importance.

Education

Colleges

Marguerite de Valois College
Anatole France College
Pierre Bodet College
Jules Michelet College
Jules Verne College
Michèle Pallet College

Schools

Lycée Guez-de-Balzac : general education school hosting literary CPGEs
School of Image and Sound of Angoulême (LISA): a general education high school (options cinema, theatre)
Marguerite de Valois High School : general and technological lycée,
Charles de Coulomb High School: a general and technological education and vocational high school (industrial education)
Sillac High School: building trades vocational school
Jean Rostand School: vocational school for the fashion industry and services, etc.

University

The University Centre of Charente is administratively attached to the University of Poitiers. It includes:

a Faculty of Law and Social Sciences
a Faculty of Sport Sciences
CEPE (European Centre for children’s products)
University Institutes of Technology (IUT)
a departmental site of the Graduate School of Teaching and Education from the University of Poitiers

Health

All medical and paramedical specialties are present.

The Angoulême Hospital Center , also called Girac Hospital, is located in the town of Saint-Michel;
The Saint-Joseph clinic is the only one remaining in the town of Angoulême. The other clinics (Victor-Hugo, Sainte-Marie, Saint-Cybard, etc.) are grouped together on a single site: the clinical center of Soyaux .

Culture and heritage

Angoulême and Angoumois country together are classified as a City of Art and History.

In place of its ancient fortifications, Angoulême is encircled by boulevards above the old city walls, known as the Remparts, from which fine views may be obtained in all directions. Within the town the streets are often narrow. Apart from the cathedral and the City Hall, the architecture is of little interest to purists. However, the “old town” has been preserved, maintained and largely reserved for pedestrians. It has a cobbled restaurant quarter, with several galleries and boutiques.

Angoulême contains a very large number of buildings and structures which are registered as historical monuments. Below are listed some of the most interesting sites.

Civil heritage

There are very many old houses:

The Maison Saint-Simon in Rue de la Cloche-Verte.
The Hotel de Bardines at 79 Rue de Beaulieu.
The Hotel Montalembert.
The House called Archers.
The Hôtel Mousnier-Longpré at 24 Rue Friedland.
A Hotel Particular.
An Ancient Portal at 59 Rue du Minage.
An Ancient Portal at 61 Rue du Minage.
The Place du Minage with its fountain.
The Place Henri Dunant.
The Place New-York.
The ‘Place Beaulieu, etc.

The Town Hall (13th century) was designed by Paul Abadie and is a handsome 19th-century structure.
The Ramparts (4th century). The ramparts form a balcony overlooking the Charente.
The Market building is made of architectural glass and iron of Baltard type.
The Palace of Justice was built on an old convent at the end of the 19th century by Paul Abadie’s father.
The Municipal Theatre has a superb façade.
The College Jules Verne, a former deanery.
The Guez de Balzac School built by Paul Abadie father and son.

Environmental heritage

The valley of the Charente upstream from Angoulême is a Natura 2000 zone with remarkable species: 64 species of birds. Among them are species for marshland and wetland; and at Angoulême it is common to see wildfowl including mute swan, black-necked grebe, little grebe, horned grebe, great crested grebe, greylag goose, gadwall, pintail, etc.

Marquet island and the Forest of la Pudrerie have been finally cleared and will be provided to the population.

Hiking trails and an old haulage road have become part of the green corridor which allows walks along the river.

Tours of the town include the murs peints, various walls painted in street-art cartoon style, a feature of Angoulême and related to its association with the bande dessinée, the comic strip. A statue has been erected to Hergé, creator of The Adventures of Tintin. The attractive covered market Les Halles, on the site of the old jail, was restored and refurbished in 2004 and is a central part of city life.

The ramparts

Since Roman times ramparts have surrounded the Plateau of Angoulême. Repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt, their reconstruction was finally stopped in the 19th century. The Ramparts are classified as historical monuments and the Ramparts Tour is one of the main attractions of the city.

Museums

Museum of Angoulême
Museum of Paper
Museum of the Archaeological and Historical Society of Charente
Museum of Resistance and Deportation
Museum of Cartoons (CIBDI)
Decentralized branch of the Regional Contemporary Art Fund of Poitou-Charentes

Festivals

End of January: international comic strip festival ;
April: international short film festival ;
End of May: Métis music ;
End of August: French-speaking film festival ;
End of September: Circuit des Remparts ;
End of October: Piano in Valois ;
End of November: Gastronomades ;
Beginning of November: The Grand Festival of Dance .

Gastronomy

Angoumois gastronomy is little different from Charentaise gastronomy in general. It includes the Charentais cricket , a kind of rillettes with a thicker texture, “cagouilles”, the local name for snails, often served cooked in Pineau des Charentes, and dishes made from local spirits, pineau and cognac .

Sports

Sailing school, based by Éric Tabarly at the lake of Saint-Yrieix
The women’s handball team was in division 1 for the 2008–2009 season.
The Angoulême CFC (ACFC) is the football club.
TTGF is the Table Tennis Club.
The SC Angoulême Rugby Club
The ACA (Angoulême Rowing Club)