These landscapes where skies and waters meet, these plains and hills moulded by the hand of man have always generated admiration, inspired writers and some of our greatest poets. The past recalls the grand story of the Anjou House as well as the painful episodes of the religious wars and the revolt in the Vendée region. Nature and climate have generously endowed this land, its ocean shores with their vast beaches and its backcountry, infused with serenity and harmony.

The Anjou is a region with an uncommon destiny, which reached its zenith during the 12th century. At that time a representative of the dynasty of the Counts of Anjou, Henry Plantagenet, married Alienor of Aquitania. He became King of England and of more than half of Western France, with the title Henry II. This made him more powerful than the reigning French king, a member of the dynasty of the Capetians. During the 100 year’s war, England and France fought bitterly for supremacy of Anjou and Touraine. In later times, two personalities from the House of Anjou came to the fore. During the 13th century, Charles d’Anjou conquered Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples, but was then driven away. During the 15th century “Good King Rene”, the last of the dynasty, achieved popular fame because he was a scholar, a mathematician, a lawyer, a musician and a poet. A man of simple manners who communicated easily with ordinary people, he was forced to cede Anjou to Louis XI ad retired to Aix-en-Provence.

At King Rene’s court, poetry occupied a place of honour. This art became a hallmark and a tradition of the Loire Valley thanks to the “Prince of Poets”, Pierre Ronsard, to the authors of the Pleiade and to Joachim de Bellay, who sang lyrically about their beautiful country, nature and gallantry. None is more enthusiastic than Jerome du Bellay’s well-known ode to his native village on the banks of the Loire;

“ More than hard marble do I love fine slate
More my Gaullish Loire than the Latin Tiber
More my little Lire than the Palatine Mountains
And more than the sea breeze the sweet air of Anjou”
This poem says it all.

Winding through the Anjou region, the Loire river, swollen by its tributaries, is a superb sight. After Saumur there are a large number of islands, some wild paradises for birds, others covered in prairies and shrubbery. The many ports on its banks show that the river traffic was once intense. It mainly transported two of the region’s prime products : wine and freestone. The sloping Saumur hills are famous for their vineyards, planted with their roots in the chalk and their heads in the sun. Freestone is prized for its quality, its whiteness, its elegance and the ease with which it can be cut. Many caves and excavations have been burrowed out of the soft stone of the rock faces ; they are used as wine cellars or homes for cave-dwellers, some have been transformed into restaurants and in veritable little underground palaces. The other Anjou stone does not require presentation, it’s the beautiful blue slate that adorns the roofs of houses and gives them that unmistakeable Loire Valley touch.

In Anjou there are chateaux whose architecture differs widely from the traditional Renaissance dwellings of the Touraine region. The two most important chateaux are Angers, an impressive feudal dwelling with powerful round towers and Saumur, also a fortress, but with renovated architecture. Near Saumur one of France’s largest monastic complexes, Fonteyrault Abbey, harbours the tombs of the Pantagenets, including three Kings of England. Angers also has two treasures belonging to our national heritage. The Tapestry Museum harbours the famous Tapestry of the Apocalypse, ancestor and masterpiece of Medieval tapestry (this set, executed during the 14th century, comprises seven pieces representing 98 scenes with a total length of 107 meters). The former Saint Jean hospital displays a monumental contemporary work by Jean Lurçat “The Song of the World”. Around these two centres, the town has gathered artists and craftsmen keen to perpetuate the great art of drapery. Angers is recognized as the capital of French tapestry.

The major rivers on the Western banks of the Loire : the Loir, Sarthe and Mayenne, meet in Angers to form the Maine, after having irrigated a beautiful region of farmlands with the same name. Le Mans is the central axis. This town is famed for its race track, which hosts the greatest endurance race in Europe, the renowned “24 hours”, which has made a major contribution to the development of the automobile industry. As regards heritage, its gallo-roman ramparts, which encompass a picturesque old district and a cathedral with an impressive gothic chevet, are unique in France. The town is also the centre of a livestock farming region famous for its potted meat (rillettes) and for its Le Mans rennet apples.

In its lower regions, near the estuary, the Loire runs through Nantes, which has derived great benefit from the river for centuries. This town, which is the administrative centre of the Pays de Loire region and a pole of the service sector, is historically Breton and was at one time the capital of the province, as well as the seat of the dukes of Brittany. The chateau, which has recently undergone extensive restoration, is both a fortress and an elegant dwelling. The peninsula of Guerande, famous for its salt, occupies the North of the estuary next to La Grande-Brière ; it is the second marshland in France after the Camargue. Anglers, hunters and nature lovers flock there because Brière Park is an ideal spot to observe wild birds.

The Vendee marshes were dredged from the 10th century on and were gradually reclaimed. Once most of the salt marshes had been abandoned, economic activity turned to cattle and sheep raising, grazing in the polders bordered by hedges and canals full of ducks ; on the coast, shellfish farming also became a regular activity. But the greatest area of economic development today is the leisure industry, especially tourism and sailing. Beautiful, sun-soaked beaches stretch all the way From Pornic to the Sables d’Olonne. The islands of Noirmoutier and Yeu combine island calm and protected nature reserves. The Vendee countryside, with its robust peasant tradition and its deep religious faith experienced a number of tragic historical episodes, especially just after the French Revolution, during the Convention in 1793 when the peasants from Vendee and Mauges, armed with pitchforks and scythes, faced up to the republican troops. The spectacle of Puy du Fou recalls these events and offers an entertaining presentation of the traditional activities of the Vendee region.

Local traditions endure is many areas. All the way along the Loire valley with the art of wine-growing and the marriage of grape varieties and soils. In the Touraine and Anjou regions, different designations of origin, modest or renowned, deep or soft reds, sparkling whites. “Where wine flows, life is pleasant”, according to a popular saying. It could be the local motto. Saumur is also famous for the art of horse-riding, here at its zenith with the renowned “cadre noir”, the jewel and guardian of the great French equestrian tradition. In the area around the world’s elite riding school, leisure riding activity has flourished. Tradition is also fostered through typical games such as the “boule du fort”, exclusively practiced in the Anjou region. In the Mauges region, we can discover the art of pottery (Fuilet), traditional trades (St-Laurent-de-la-Plaine), the hemp and coal eco-museum (Monjean), textile traditions (Cholet), etc…In the Maine there is a tradition of pottery-making that goes back to the 18th century. In the Brière marshlands, a tradition of undivided property even persists, which regulates the fishing, hunting, grazing and reed gathering activities. In the Retz region, which is half Poitou and half Breton, yielding Muscadet and Gros-plant wines, former windmills have been transformed into attractive dwellings. Historical tours (good king Rene tour, the Plantagenets, the Valley of Kings, etc..) and theme tours are proposed by the local tourist centres. They also propose the discovery of the famed gastronomic traditions of the Loire Valley, based on the river’s resources and local produce.
We will leave the conclusion to an uncontested expert, Curnonsky, named the “prince of gourmets”, a native of Angers, who wrote : “Anjou has the honour of being the land of hospitality and calm digestion”. A land of good living and balance…

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