Angers only #5394, others Paris
Angers (UK: /ˈɒ̃ʒeɪ/, US: /ɒ̃ˈʒeɪ, ˈændʒərz/,[2][3][4] French: [ɑ̃ʒe] (About this soundlisten)) is a city in western France, about 300 km (190 mi) southwest of Paris. It is chef-lieu 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. Not including the metropolitan area, Angers is the third most populous commune in northwestern France after Nantes and Rennes and the 18th in France.[5]
Angers proper covers 42.70 square kilometers (16.5 sq mi)[6] and has a population of 152,960 inhabitants, while around 422,700 live in its metropolitan area (aire urbaine). The Angers Loire Métropole is made up of 29 communes covering 667 square kilometers (258 square miles) with 296,000 inhabitants (2017).[7]
For centuries, Angers was an important stronghold in northwestern France. It was the cradle of the Plantagenet dynasty and became one of the intellectual centers of Europe during the reign of René of Anjou. Angers developed at the confluence of three rivers, the Mayenne, the Sarthe, and the Loir, all coming from the north and flowing south to the Loire. Their confluence, just north of Angers, creates the Maine, a short but wide river that flows into the Loire several kilometres south.