Angers is a bigger town than Tours. I was surprised to learn that. It's larger in area and in population. It has a long history as one of the most important cities in France. And it has an enormous "château" — it's really more of a fortress or fort. Starting in the 10th century, the counts of Anjou were powerful figures in France for hundreds of years. They were rivals of the counts of Blois and controlled all of Anjou and Touraine for a time. And then Angers produced the Plantagenêt dynasty that ruled England for several centuries. Henri II Plantagenêt (who was king Henry II of England for 45 years) married Eleanor of Aquitaine, meaning that the counts of Anjou controlled territories from Bordeaux in southwestern France all the way up to the border between England and Scotland.
The château d'Angers is known for its formal gardens.
The wall around the castle compound (enclosing five acres) includes 17 of these massive towers.
This screenshot from Google Maps shows how enormous the castle at Angers is. It's on the left where I've put a red doton the map. Angers is 90 miles west of Saint-Aignan, 60 miles west of Tours, and
80 miles up the Loire from France's Altlantic coast.
As you say, this chateau is more like a fortress with a colection of defensive towers. The habitable portion is in the courtyard and is vey small proportionately.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t remember the formal gardens in the moat, but I do remember the tapestry l’Apacalypse. I don’t think we went into the chateau proper. Did we?
Great photos as usual.
I didn't take any pictures of the Apocalypse tapestry. I'm trying to remember if photography was allowed in there or not. Maybe not...
DeleteProbably flash was not allowed and the light was very dim.
DeleteIt just occurred to me that English speaking people might not know how to pronounce Angers à la française.
DeleteIt was kind of dark in there.
DeleteAs for pronouncing Angers à la française, it's hard to transcribe the nasal vowel. Maybe [AWn-zhay]. In French, the n of [AWn] is not pronounced but changes the nature of the vowel. In English, at least in the American variety, the only time a vowel is nasalized is when the consonant (N or M) that follows is a nasal consonant, which is still pronounced. It's not easy to explain. You have to hear it. Angers certainly not pronounced like the English verb "angers".
I assumed it was "an-jay" - I didn't know it was "awn." Those boxwoods make great hedges in that formal garden.
DeleteYou can here it pronounced here.
Deletewould Angers make the list of potential places to live in the future?
ReplyDeleteIt might be, but I don't know Angers well enough yet. I've only ever been there once, and we didn't see much of the town. Only the castle. If the pandemic ever ends, I'll want to go see more of places like Angers, Bourges, Blois, and Tours.
DeleteBeautiful garden. Google maps are so much fun.
ReplyDeleteThey really are. Google Earth Pro is great.
DeleteI learned he history of England, Plantagenets and all, from the English point of view as a student. Learning that history from the French point of view is a whole other thing, and fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Henri II Plantagenet spoke English. I've read that his son Richard the Lionhearted, who was king of England for 10 years or so hardly spent any time in England at all. His native language was a dialect of French.
DeleteI googled it a bit. According to one Wiki page on Henry II: "Although he was King of England, he never learnt the English language because his family had come over from Normandy in 1066. They spoke Norman French. Henry was intelligent and well educated. He spoke Latin fluently, which was the language of educated people in Europe at that time."
DeleteSo, French and Latin. Which makes sense for his times. English at that time would most likely have been used only by the lowest classes, the speech of the peasants and the conquered, because the uppers were Normans.