Although most of our stay in Angoulême was focused on the vintage car racing, we were able to see some of the city although much of the centre was obscured by marquees or railings.
Angoulême is the capital of the Charente department and sits on a plateau above the Charente river. The centre of the city is located on the plateau within the old city ramparts and was this part was largely rebuilt in the 19th century although the original cobbled streets and narrow winding lanes of ‘Old Angoulême’ still remain. Buildings that were restored or added to in the 19th century include the Hôtel de Ville, museum and cathedral and the name of the architect Paul Abadie features on many of these beautiful buildings.
Today Angoulême is renowned for its cultural life and, in particular, its annual International Comics Festival (Festival international de la bande dessinée d’Angoulême) the third biggest festival for this genre in the world after Italy and Japan. Angoulême doesn’t have a history of comic strips: none of the key authors were born there and no comic strip publishers are based there, but a group of enthusiasts organised a small exhibition in the 1970s that grew overs the years into a convention and then a festival. The only link between comic strips and Angoulême is the fact that the town is famous for making paper with the paper mill industry dating back to the 16th century. The banks of the River Charente were once peppered with paper mills, and the quality of their output was the envy of the whole of Europe.
Evidence of the link to comic strips and art can be seen in the street art throughout the city – wonderful murals and smaller paintings to be discovered as you walk through the streets, and road names in the format of comic book speech bubbles. A bust of Hergé, the creator Tintin has pride of place in a pedestrianised street, renamed Rue Hergé in 2003. The city also has a renowned museum dedicated to comic strips that we didn’t have time to visit this time around, but worth another stop sometime.
Gareth should definitely make a pilgrimage to Angouleme! You must tell him about it – it might help him get over the Canadians burning Tintin books which I alerted him to a few days ago!!
I agree and I thought of Gareth as soon as we got to Angouleme. I’ll let him know now the recent Francophiles chat has died down!