As with many cities in France, Angouleme has an old and modern area. The old town has been built on a high steep-sided plateau with the river Charente
winding its way through the countryside below, an excellent location as a
natural fortress. It is a charming city with much to see. The labyrinth of streets to
the north of the delightful place Louvel and the massive Hotel de Ville have
undergone much restoration. There are many restaurants and bars in
this area, whereas the eastern part of the city, down rue Marango and rue St-Martial, has become
the main commercial centre. On the southern edge of the plateau is the Cathedral,
whose west front, like Notre Dame at Poitiers, is a fascinating display board for some
expressive and lively twelfth-century sculpture, culminating in a Risen Christ with
angels and clouds about his head, framed in the usual blaze of a halo. The lively frieze
beneath the tympanum to the right of the west door commemorates the recapture of
Spanish Zaragoza from the Moors, showing a bishop transfixing a Moorish giant with his
lance and Roland killing the Moorish king.
Next to the cathedral in the old bishop's palace, there's more art on show at the Musee
des Beaux Arts (Mon to Fri noon to 6pm, Sat and Sun 2 to 6pm; 2 Euros.29, free entry Mon to Fri noon to 2pm),
with an emphasis on seventeenth to nineteenth century paintings, many by Charentais
artists.
From the front of the cathedral, you can walk all around the ramparts encircling the
plateau, with long views over the surrounding country, now largely filled with urban sprawl.
There are public gardens below the parapet at the far end of the fortifications, and a
gravelly esplanade by the lycee where locals gather to play boules.
Angouleme's most fascinating museum lies just below the city walls on the north side close to the River Charente:
the Centre National de la Bande Dessinee, 121 rue de Bordeaux (Sept to June Tues to Fri 10am to 6pm, Sat & Sun 2 to 6pm;
July and Aug open Mon and until 7pm; 5 Euros; bus NO.3 or No.5), devoted entirely to comic strips.
Housed in a 'turn of the twentieth century' brewery, with contemporary highrise and glass additions, the museum gets across the
message that comics ("BD"), from politics to pornography, are regarded as a serious art form in France.
The museum owns a collection of some four thousand original drawings,
which it displays in rotating exhibitions of about three hundred at a time.
They range from the earliest stories with pictures and captions, the nineteenth-century
images d'Epinal, through the introduction of the speech bubble in the 1920s to some of
the darker contemporary productions. Asterix, Peanuts, Tintin and many other characters
and artists are represented. There's also a vast library, much of it in English,
where you're welcome to relax on cushions and flick through the comics.
Another riverfront museum close by is the Atelier Musee du Papier, 134 rue de Bordeaux
(July and Aug Tues to Sat noon to 6.30pm; Sept. to June Tues to Sun 2 to 6 pm; free), located in a disused
cigarette,paper factory, a fitting tribute to the declining Charentais paper industry.
While exhibits get into the history and technicalities of paper making, art isn't
forgotten, with contemporary creations on show, utilizing paper, cardboard and pulp.