Living in France : Angers, the best town?

What’s the Best town in France?
Is there a singular answer?
Angers received the title of 1st town where it’s good to live multiple years, and has been classed as 1 of the best towns of France many years consecutively.
What makes it a great town to live?

Academic excellency & Food Engineering

Wherever it is Grade School or University, Angers invests highly in it’s education.

Angers has a great State University.
Angers is heavily investing in Engineering through l’Ecole Supérieur d’Agriculture (ESA).
Most notably Agricultural & Biological Engineering through the Istom, an Institute specialized in Food Engineering.
This school, trains engineers specializing in agricultural fields, has strategically set up in the heart of Pays de la Loire. a region that excels in this area.
Innovation in Plants/Crops development though new technology.
The Angers’ University & the Istom have developed a large inter-partnership web with R&D centers & partners such as ESA, Essca, Agro Campus Ouest, INRA.

Angers has also developed a ‘Campus du végétal’, a polarizing infrastructure composed of 2 parts:
- La ‘Maison du végétal’ is the Competitiveness & Industrial development pole gathering industrial professionals, CEOs & professional syndicates of the field.
- L’Institut du végétal The Campus gathers more 250 researchers & engineers as well as students.

Health physical and mental health factors including
As for the rest of France, the life expectancy is high: 83 years.
France is 5th is most benchmarks in terms of life expectancy (Spain, Italy & Sweden have a similar index).
and adults reporting insufficient sleep or mentally unhealthy days.

Health Amenities & Services
The Accessibility to a general practitioner is very high, 1 of the highest in France.
The same goes for dentists, kinésithérapeute, gynecologists, pediatricians & ophthalmologists.
The access to mental health providers (psychiatrists) & primary care providers (nurses) is also high.

Physical Activity
As said earlier, Parks are plentiful in Angers & more than 300 of them are Equipped for physical activity.
To compare most towns in France have between 20 & 50 equipped parks.

Angers develops cross-domain policies to enhance Energy efficiency & Sustainable Urbanisme.

Angers shines through its measures in term of modern Urbanisme.
Angers is the greenest Town of France (palmarès Unep 2014).
Her R&D is oriented through vegetal production & innovation supporting the City of Tomorrow.

Wherever it is professionals, or enthusiast, the Angevins(Angers’ inhabitants) are making their town greener.
The vegetal declination embellish the historical, namely medieval but also antique, patrimony of the town.
Angers, has obtain the label ‘4 fleurs’ at the ‘Villes et Villages fleuris’ national competition.
Every habitant can access to a green space through feet.
Angers holds more than 40 parks, 550 ha of green space or more than 40 m² per habitant.
The town gathers more than 1 000 ha of natural spaces, 110 000 tree & 1 000 resting spots.

Angers organizes every year a competition named ‘Jardins d’expression’.
The Goal of this competition is to ‘enhance the bond between human & nature though patrimonial valorisation & horticultural know-how.’
Up to 40 Jardins are elaborated by engineer/agriculture/designer students, high schoolers & grade schoolers.
The 40 pieces are then presented to more than 30000 visitors.

In term of convenience, commute times are short, walkability is good, and distance to airports is reasonable.
The Public Transportation web, composed mainly of Buses & Tramways, is consistant & effective.
Its is designed to create as little atmospheric pollution as possible.

Angers’ criminality (property & violent crime risk) is low compared to the National index.
Criminality growth is steady.
The Town is big enough to have 4 Precincts.
The Gendarmeries posts & police departments within the Town’s boundaries are easily accessible, as everywhere else in France.

The Population contributes to the maintain of peace through militant & Associative actions, community support & ‘Maisons de quartier’.

The investment made in Education, Culture & Sports policies are crucial to maintain the criminality at a low level, especially with youths.
The constant embellishment of the town & the activity of communities Associations contributes largely to the reduction of criminal acts.

You can find a 2-bedroom apartment for as little as 700€ in Southern Angers.
You can find a 2-bedroom apartment for as little as 750-800€ in Central Angers.
You can find a 3-bedroom house for as little as 750€ in Southern Angers.
- In districts such as La Roseraie or Chateaubriant the prices are reasonable.
It may be difficult to find a 3-bedroom house in Central Angers, but the offers exist.

It’s a good idea to go directly to the owner through immobilier(real estate) websites so you don’t have to pay agency fee.
You’ll often save from 150-200€.

Angers displays its historical patrimony through constant renovation & restauration.
Angers integrates its historical patrimony into the general Urbanisme.
Most of Angers’ historical patrimony is Medieval, but you also have many Antique structures & art pieces.

Angers holds 3 of the great Musée de France (National museums).
The Art Galleries are plentiful as well you can find many famous paintings that were painted in Angers & are now exposed in here to this day.
Multiple poets such as Ronsard & Du Bellay, have their pieces of poetry accessible from local museums & art galleries.

The project directed by Japanese architecte Kengo Kuma aims to protects the Polychromies of the Cathedral.
The abundant use of Wood, the limitation in the use of Concrete & Steel pairs with the way Angers is built.
Sustainable & Aesthetic Urbanisme are the end goal.