Sightseeing, Shopping & Eating in Angouleme

On Monday we set out to see the city where my parents had labored as missionaries for 23 months. Angouleme is a beautiful city AND OLD! I don't know when it was built, but there are references for the city as early as 507 AD for crying out loud. Let's see...what was happening in 507 AD? King Arthur was alive and kicking Saxon fanny all over Britain...the Roman Empire was in serious decline...and in France, the Frankish King Clovis was fighting Alaric II and his Visigoths. He captured Angouleme from Alaric and killed the Visigoth King at the Battle of Campus Vogladensis. Very exciting stuff. Anyhoo...Angouleme used to have a huge stone wall that surrounded it, but it was torn down and the stone used to build buildings all throughout the city. Needless to say, the buildings look cool. All that remains of the wall are the ramparts. Here is a picture of the city, or at least a small part of it.Here's some more...I've circled an area where you can see the ramparts that run around the old city.

Here's a picture of everyone taking pictures of Angouleme...

Angouleme boasts quite a famous comic book-art college: Ecole Des Metiers Du Cinema D’Animation, and because of the city's connection with the school and it's yearly graphic art awards festival, there are "murs peints" or walls covered with cartoon/street-art style murals throughout the city. Here are a few:These murals make the city a strange fusion of old and new which I'm not too keen on, but which the French seem to love. There is, after all, a huge and ugly glass pryamid at the Louvre and a giant spaceman lying on the steps of Versailles. Go figure. As I am a fan of the classical, I appreciated the unusual lines of the roofs...

the stained glass windows in the churches...


and the architecture of the buildings. This is the cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Mom, Dad and I are sitting on the ramparts.

The Angouleme City Hall is also extremely old...part of it used to be a chateau where an ancestress of mine lived what I'm sure was a very scandalous life (because I'm so terribly scandalous!).


After a brief rain where we huddled under umbrellas (it rained almost every day we were in France, mostly in the afternoon) we headed into the open air mall for some shopping. We were all pretty hungry so when I spied a pastry shop we headed on over. Actually, I think the delicious aroma lured us in. This was where I made the acquaintance of the ever so lovely "pain au chocolat" - a flaky pastry studded with chocolate chunks. I ordered in French, and after being kindly corrected on my pronunciation, was given a little piece of manna. We all inhaled our treat, so no one got a picture, but this is what they look like...

SO YUMMY!

We shopped until we just about dropped buying hats and funky necklaces and shirts and vests and skirts...it was such fun. In France, I am a size 3...ha! FIRST TIME EVER!!!

Jaime and Sandra pose with their new Écouter.

I got one too!

Finally, we finished off the night by eating dinner at a local kabob place owned by a lovely Arabic man. Now, these are not "kabobs" as in meat and veggies on a stick. These are "kabobs" (pronounced k-bobs) as in meat slowly roasted and piled on yummy bread and eaten with spicy sauce and lettuce...all served with fries. IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD!! I need to open a kabob place, I would seriously make a mint.

And we all went home stuffed and happy.

On my next edition: Rocamandour!