Angers

On Sunday, we packed up a lunch before heading to church so we could go straight from there to Angers for the afternoon (it's pronounced "on-ZHAY," by the way). We had a wonderful several hours before rain started to fall, made even better when we discovered that the castle—which we hadn't necessarily planned to visit—had free entry for the day. Nice!

Friday edit:

In the interest of expedience, I originally had left the post at what's above and just inserted a slideshow of photos with some captions below it. However, that photo album / slideshow doesn't seem to be working for many folks using phones or iPads, although it seems to load normally on most laptops/desktops. Accordingly, I'm leaving the full slideshow at the very bottom of the post but am inserting a bunch of the pictures, along with some narrative, into the body of this post after all. So much for trying to keep things simple, eh?  :)

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When we arrived, we began by walking around some of the oldest part of the city. 

 We loved the contrast between the very short and squat door at #17 and the very tall and skinny door at #19. We wondered whether the residents bore any resemblance to their entryways. 

The cathedral was magnificent. There is a very, very long stairway from the cathedral down to a grand fountain and park area below.

Of everything we saw that afternoon, the boys probably most enjoyed getting sprayed by the fountain when a wind gust blew through.  :)

 

The interior of the cathedral comported well with its imposingly beautiful exterior. 

It has a pair of absolutely enormous rose windows facing each other (north and south transepts). The sun was in and out of clouds, but when light burst through the windows, it was incredible.

Heading on to the castle...

 

It's hard to tell, but in the picture below we were up on the ramparts (the top of the towers shown in the left-hand photo above). It was built up in levels inside the castle. We were so surprised to climb up and find not just a lovely view, but kitchen gardens and a small vineyard up there!

This delightful beard and grin brought to you compliments of a chocolate eclair purchased en route to the castle.

 

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