Town Twinning FAQ
Here are a selection of Frequently Asked Questions around the twinning of Wigan and Angers. If you require additional information on any of these issues or other aspects, you can contact the Ambassador from Angers on 01942 828950.
How long has Angers been twinned with Wigan?
The City of Angers and the Wigan borough have been officially twinned since 1988. However, the links between Wigan and Angers started ten years earlier.
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Where is Angers?
Angers is in West part of France, located in the Val de Loire, included on the UNESCO list of world Heritage sites since 2000.
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Is Angers twinned with any other towns?
Angers is twinned with Bamako in Mali (since 1974), Haarlem in Netherlands (since 1964), Osnabruck in Germany (since 1964), Pisa in Italy (since 1982), Yantaï in China (since 2006) and maintains a close cooperation with Sodertalje in Sweden (since 1998).
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How many inhabitants are there in Angers?
Angers is France’s 16th largest city and has a population of 152,700 (2005). It is a young city as 40% of the population is under 30 years old. Angers is the centre of a 280,00 inhabitants agglomeration, the “Angers Loire Métropole” (which is composed of Angers and other independent towns) and is the historic, administrative, cultural and economic capital of the 800,000 inhabitants Anjou region.
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What is there to see and do in Angers?
There is plenty to do in Angers, city renown for being a city of “art and history”. Angers benefits from a unique architectural heritage and hosts many quality museums, theatres, cinemas and festivals making it a vibrant cultural city. Sport also holds an important place of the city life thanks to the high quality of its equipments and the presence of Nature within every corner of the city makes it a lovely place to visit, walk in and live in. Have a look at the 'Angers, your Twin Town' web page for further details.
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How do I get to Angers
Angers is well served by the train. TGVs (high speed trains) permit access to Paris in 1 hour 30 minutes (more than 15 return journeys daily), Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport, Angers’ main international gateway, in 2 hours (4 daily TGVs) and London in 4 hours 20 minutes by Eurostar. Including connection times, it will take you about 6 hours to go from Wigan to Angers by train. From Angers, you could access by train most of the main attractions of the Loire Valley and the Western region within a short period of time.
The A11 ‘L’Océane’ Motorway can bring you from Nantes in 45 minutes and from Paris in 2 and a half hours. Angers is only a few hours drive from most of the channel ferry ports.
Almost all major cities’ airports in the region have regular flights to the UK. Angers Loire Airport does not however. For most of your journey needs, the most convenient airports from Angers would be Nantes Atlantique airport (1 hour away from Angers by car or train+bus) and Paris airports (Orly and Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle).
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