Angers

Angers is a city in western France, about 300 km southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the province are called Angevins or, more rarely, Angeriens.

Angers proper covers 42.70 square kilometers and has a population of 154,508 inhabitants, while around 432,900 live in its metropolitan area. The Angers Loire Métropole is made up of 29 communes covering 667 square kilometers with 299,500 inhabitants. Not including the broader metropolitan area, Angers is the third most populous commune in northwestern France after Nantes and Rennes and the 18th most populous commune in France.For centuries, Angers was an important stronghold in northwestern France.