The approach to Chateau d'Angers

For today’s post we’re heading back to Angers, briefly. We visited the city for the first time this summer, and as with any city exploration we went on foot without too much of a route planned. We’d started the day in the Jardin des Plantes on the other side of town and meandered our way towards the river, and the castle which frankly is too big a landmark to miss!

I like the meandering as your wish takes you approach to seeing a city, as much like exploring a garden, sometimes there’s things that just pull you that way and sometimes you don’t know why, but often you end up seeing things you never knew existed, and wouldn’t perhaps have known about if you’d stayed on the more usual routes.

But anyway, we found ourselves down by the river and ahead of us we were intrigued by what we could see, it looked like a tunnel of plants which looked intriguing.

When we got closer that’s exactly what it was - we were too late to see the wisteria in flower (sadly).

But the scent of jasmine and roses filled the space, which also did a great job of screening the traffic from the busy road running alongside the river - beauty and function working well together!

The only thing is that we knew we’d need to climb the hill, as for good reasons castles generally aren’t built at low level are they?

It was understandably quite a way up, and a great lookout spot. But if we hadn’t meandered this way we’d have missed walking through the scent filled ‘tunnel’ and missed seeing this magnolia with it’s rickety fence.

I wasn’t expecting to see such formal gardens in the former moat of the castle, it was just what we needed to spur us on - as not only did we have to walk up, we also needed to walk around the boundary of the castle. The more usual route would have been far less steps, but I’m glad we didn’t opt for that.

We didn’t find a way to get down into this part of the castle gardens, and it may not have been possible - but having seen them as we approached the castle we didn’t mind so much.

And before I finish, let’s take a moment to admire the slate edged wall - that’s equally as impressive. We made our way to the castle entrance and enjoyed more gardens inside the castle’s walls, I’ll share some of those photos in the next post I share from our French trip, but until then I’m off to figuratively get my breath back.

In the Jardin des Plantes d'Angers

Angers is known as the green city and I was keen to explore some of the city’s green spaces on our visit, and our plan for our first day there was to explore the botanical gardens right in the heart of the city.

It’s website promised ‘a true oasis of greenery’ and it didn’t disappoint. Though when we entered we were quite bemused with how the tree had been secured, though it seemed to be doing the job - as that’s not a tree that you want to come down is it?

The garden dates back to 1905 and there was more to it than first met our eyes.

We meandered around the paths admiring the trees, and the planting and found ourselves crisscrossing the paths around the lake.

Each of them brought different vistas, that were the same but yet different. Moving away from the lake we stumbled across this arch to seemingly nowhere.

Soon after we found ourselves in a part of the garden which felt less like the English garden that we’d left, with its grasses, rock stacks and more tropical planting.

We welcomed the coolness of the shade, and admired the textures of the varied leaves.

Continuing to let our feet lead us amongst the paths until we were at another arch, this time of a jasmine in full flower - and full scent.

Before finding ourselves back amongst the cool shaded section again - we might have purposefully lingered here for a while.

Deciding to find a place for refreshments, a coffee at least, we ambled back along the pathways to where we’d come in.

But not without stopping to admire the acanthus - and adding it to my plant wish list.

And before long we had the grandiose gates in sight, where once again we paused before heading back into the city’s hubbub.

Two bouillons and some extra glamour

Having two nights in Paris on our trip gave us the perfect opportunity to revisit our favourite restaurant in the city, although we saw from our pre-trip research that the restaurant in Montparnasse had changed hands. We could also see that it had lost none of its charm, in fact its story had taken a remarkable turn and so it was definitely somewhere we planned to eat.

As our onward train left from Montparnasse we stayed close to the station that evening, which gave us the perfect opportunity to head along to the Bouillon Chartier and once again embrace the beautiful interiors, and hopefully some really good food.

A bouillon, we learnt, is more than just a name and stands for traditional, simple and hearty cuisine that’s affordable, generous and unpretentious - and yes, it was good. And the surroundings were just as we remembered them, though in previous visits I’m sure we’ve spent a pretty Franc and a pretty Euro more!

This bouillon opened it’s Art Nouveau decor doors in 1903, with ceramic wall tiles by Louise Trézel which were added to France’s cultural heritage registry in 1984. Remarkably these, and many other features including the ornate carved wood mirrors, had been kept in place and preserved over the years, and so when this restaurant reopened under its original name in 2019 it was able to have its same splendour once again.

While admiring the surroundings we feasted on really good food with MOH opted to start with snails which are definitely not for me, the celeriac remoulade was much more my thing, followed by the roasted chicken and fries and finishing with a Rum Baba - they’re classic menu choices and I’m happy with them, even if MOH can predict what I’ll choose!

But I promised you two bouillons, and here’s the second. We had another night in Paris before our return journey to the UK and similarly stayed close to our departing station - I reckoned that no one needed the stress of crossing Paris with a deadline, and so by staying within walking distance to our departing stations we would have a less stressful start to our travel day.

Following the success of our visit to the Bouillon Chartier at Montparnasse MOH, my long term restaurant finder came up trumps and found another one close to our hotel between Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Ouest. Like last time we hadn’t got a booking, but we weren’t as lucky with our timing, and so needed to queue for a table. We queued less than half an hour, and were soon ushered into the restaurant when I suspect as people who’d booked didn’t show up in their timeslot. Their loss, our gain!

As you can see from the mosaic doorstep Bouillon Julien was founded in 1906, and its founder Edouard Fournier proclaimed that ‘here, everything is beautiful, good, inexpensive’ - and it was.

That chap Louis Trezel appears in this building’s history too creating nymphs symbolising the four seasons represented in four glass panels. It seems this bouillon wasn’t quite so lucky in keeping its original features as in 2018 the restoration started with the sole aim of seeking authenticity. An early discovery revealed that the walls weren’t beige as everyone though, but instead a ‘Céladon’ green and it’s a beautiful pale and calming colour that works really well here.

As we were sitting almost in the window at the front of the restaurant, on the ruse of ‘popping to the loo’ I went to see more - I did find the loos, but unusually it was the restaurant’s decor that I photographed.

Here MOH didn’t have snails, but instead the terrine and I veered away from my usual choices by opting for the leek vinaigrette with hazelnuts, which was so good that I’ve been looking at recipes to recreate this at home. It looks easy enough, I just haven’t got around to it yet.

The food here was equally as good, and the wine glasses were as equally as small - and the surroundings, well you can see for yourself they are equally as stunning.

And the glamour?

We stumbled upon this shimmer of extra glamour in Angers completely by chance. We’d visited the Jardin des Plantes and was meandering back towards the centre of town, without following stringent directions, as you do when you’re on holiday (but not when you’re on a walking holiday!)

It looked like a shower might be on its way, and sure enough it was. Rather than dig out our waterproofs as it didn’t look like the shower would last long, we ducked into a department store. It turned out to be the old Galeries Lafayette department store, now renamed BHV Angers.

It’s safe to say we didn’t expect to see this.

We’d wandered up to the home department to prolong our visit, and because I like to see shops in other countries and found ourselves staring and admiring the glass ceiling above us. It was here that I found some bedding by Le Redoute, which I hadn’t realised was part of this chain, and which was 35% off.

But there was no way I was carrying that home if I didn’t have to, so later that evening I checked out what they had online - it was there, and with the same reduction and no restrictions on shipping to the UK, so it was a matter of biding my time to place my order. I got that just about right, it was delivered the day we got home, but a few hours before we arrived, and I love it just as much. It no longer appears to be on their site, and I hadn’t shopped with Le Redoute for a very long time, but they have some lovely bedding so they’re back on my radar.

Originally the site was the Grand Hotel, and then in 1901 the hotel was transformed into a department store designed by architect Auguste Martin to emulate high-end Parisian shops, so my bet is that they were even more amazing.

So there you have two bouillons and some extra glamour, which we discovered in the most surprising way. If you’re in Paris, they’re specifically a Parisian thing, then do consider trying out a bouillon (or two!)