The city was/is by passed by me on several occasions in my north south road warrior runs to Spain; until one day, I got in in city center for a ride and some sights that I hardly remembered, However, this post will be an introductory to be in my black and white series, no pictures ,see cathedral post on Angoulême , Therefore, this is my take on this is Angoulême !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I.
The City of Angoulême is located in the Charente department no, 16, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of my belle France. The city is nicknamed the Balcony of the Southwest. Angoulême has long been a coveted stronghold due to its position at the crossroads of important transport routes, and has endured numerous sieges. From its tumultuous past, the city, perched on its rocky outcrop and recognized as a City of Art and History, has inherited a remarkable historical, religious, and urban heritage that attracts many visitors and tourists. It is 122 km from Bordeaux ,107 km from Royan by the Atlantic Ocean. 71 km from Saintes, 114 km from Poitiers, 104 km from Limoges, 84 km from Périgueux, 447 km from Versailles, and 415 km from my current home, The access is best by the N 10 Paris-Bayonne, and the N 141 Limoges-Saintes road, Also connected to Périgueux by the D939 road , D939 road to Saint-Jean-d’Angély and by the D674 to Libourne. We came here from home on our many north south road warrior trails to Spain along the N165 past Nantes on the A83 to connect with the A10 dir Angoulême to exit/sortie 34 to connect with the D939 road continue to centre ville and signs for the Cathédrale and finded parking by Avenue Georges Clemenceau,
A bit of history I like (well a lot of it here) tell us that the City of Angoulême experienced a prosperous period at the end of the Roman Empire, when it was established as the capital of civitas (late 3C or 4C) on a territory corresponding to that of the time of Gallic independence and attached to the Roman province of Aquitaine II. It was in the 4C that the region was Christianized, Ausonius of Angoulême would have been, according to Catholic tradition, the first bishop of Angoulême. The administrative importance of the city was reinforced by the establishment of a count in the 6C. The county of Angoulême remained systematically attached throughout the Middle Ages to the various Aquitaine kingdoms and then duchies and their vicissitudes. Thus, the end of Antiquity for the city can be symbolically located in 769, when Charlemagne, after Pepin the Short in 768, subdued from Angoulême where he had gathered his army the prince of Aquitaine Hunald who had revolted, and tied Aquitaine to the Frankish kingdom. During the great invasions, the region suffered, like a good part of Gaul, from the passage of the Vandals who ravaged Angoulême in 407. Aquitaine was pacified by the Visigoths, who arrived from Provence and Italy in 412-413. But with the advent of Euric in 466, the Visigoths, followers of the Arianist version of Christianity, launched persecutions against Catholics and in particular against the clergy. They destroyed the first cathedral of Angoulême and replaced it with an Arian cult building dedicated to Saint Saturnin. The city held by the Visigoths was besieged for the first time by Clovis in 507, just after his decisive victory over the Visigoths at the Battle of Vouillé. It was on his return from Toulouse that he took Angoulême in 508. At the beginning of the 8C, the end of the Merovingian period corresponded to a troubled time for Aquitaine, between the desire for independence of the princes of Aquitaine which provoked conflicts with the Merovingian kings, and the raids of the Arabs. Thus in 732, Eudes of Aquitaine, who had himself recognized as King of Aquitaine, had to call for help from Charles Martel, with whom he was in conflict, to stop the Arabs whom he had been unable to contain and who were ravaging Saintes and Angoulême on their way to the site of the Battle of Poitiers. Émenon, Count of Poitiers, the oldest known Count of Angoulême, from 839 to 863 and seems to belong to the important Carolingian family of the Guilhelmides. But from the middle of the 9C and for more than a century, Angoulême suffered raids and pillages from the Vikings who sailed up the Charente several times and against whom the Counts of Angoulême distinguished themselves.
On May 18, 1204, a charter was signed by John Lackland, King of England, to make the creation of the town of Angoulême official. In 1308, upon the death of Guy de Lusignan, the county of Angoulême returned to the crown of France. This municipal charter was returned in 1372 by King Charles V in recognition of the population’s help in freeing the city from the English who had occupied it since 1360 (Treaty of Brétigny). The county of Angoulême was given to Louis d’Orléans, brother of King Charles VI, in 1394 and then passed on to his son Jean d’Orléans, grandfather of Marguerite d’Angoulême and François I. Angoulême, seat of a county, Angoumois, comes with it to a branch of the Valois family from which Francis I, King of France from 1515 to 1547, descended. In 1524, the Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano returned from the Indies (Americas). He announced to Francis I that he had discovered a new territory which he named New Angoulême in his honor. This territory later became New Amsterdam, then New York. John Calvin, promoter of Protestantism and friend of Louis du Tillet, archdeacon of Angoulême, forced to flee Paris in 1533, took refuge in Angoulême and in the Rochecorail caves at Trois-Palis. There he wrote part of the Institution of the Christian Religion which was published in Latin, for the first time, in Basel in 1536 During the first Wars of Religion, the city took up arms: it was reconquered in 1563 by Montpensier. In 1565, Charles IX passed through the city during his royal tour of France accompanied by the court. In October 1568, the city was taken by the Protestants, In 1619, Marie de Médicis, on the run, was received there by the Duke of Épernon, governor of Angoumois. Afterwards, the castle was only the residence of the governors. The Treaty of Angoulême was negotiated by the king’s advisors, Charles d’Albert, with Richelieu, protégé of the queen mother, and resulted, on April 30, 1619, in the reconciliation of Marie de Médicis with her son King Louis XIII, in Angers. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which authorized the practice of the Protestant religion, plunged Angoulême into economic stagnation from 1685. After the events in Paris, notably the storming of the Bastille, it caused patriotic enthusiasm and a festive atmosphere that spread throughout the Angoumois region. In Angoulême and throughout the region, the beginnings of the creation of citizen militias or National Guards were observed. “Festivals of Reason” were organized in the Saint-Pierre Cathedral due to the “dechristianization” initiated by the new revolutionary government, which renamed the city Montagne-Charente.
The order for general mobilization caused fear in Angoulême on Saturday, August 1, 1914, then mixed with a collective patriotic enthusiasm on August 28, 1914, surprised by an attack from the German army, the soldiers of the 307th and 308th infantry regiments, composed of French soldiers mostly from the Charente department, charged with bayonets and were mowed down by German machine guns. 485 Charentais died in less than 4 hours. On June 24, 1940, the 2nd Verfügungstruppe (special intervention troop) Das Reich division, supported by other units of the Wehrmacht, entered Angoulême. Angoulême was in the occupied zone, under nazis authority and the seat of a Feld Kommandantur. The border with the free zone, colloquially called the nono (unoccupied) zone, runs about 20 km east of Angoulême, in the Braconne forest, splitting the department in two. On August 20, 1940, a convoy of Spanish Republicans left Angoulême: Convoy 927. It was the first convoy in the history of deportation in Europe. Men over 13 were sent to the Mauthausen camp, where very few survived; the women and children were returned to Franco. On the night of August 31 to September 1, 1944 the city was liberated by various FFI units from the department and reinforcements from Dordogne.
The City of Angoulême museum but see my hobbies for more : https://www.angouleme.fr/mes-loisirs/ville-culturelle/les-musees/
The Angoulême tourist office on its heritage : https://www.angouleme-tourisme.com/en/visit/
The Charente dept 17 tourist office on Angoulême : https://www.infiniment-charentes.com/que-faire-a-angouleme
The Nouvelle Aquitaine region tourist office on Angoulême : https://www.nouvelle-aquitaine-tourisme.com/en-us/angouleme/angouleme-what-to-do-what-to-see
There you go folks another dandy encounter in my belle France! The country is bath with wonderful sights never ending I am working on seeing more of Angoulême in the future, God willing, Again, hope you enjoy this post on this is Angoulême !!! as I
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 