A companion to Angoulême and the Angoumois

A Companion to Angoulême and the Angoumois is an anthology about a fascinating region of France and its capital city. History, art and local culture are seen here through the eyes of their visitors and residents. Angoulême's position between North and South meant it became a crossroads for many travelers and pilgrims, also for invaders... Remarkable personages are connected with her: it begins with the roman poet Ausone and ends at the comic strip festival; a journey of seventeen centuries. In between are accounts of Richard the Lionheart and his brother John Lackland who abducted Isabelle of Angoulême when she was only 14; the king François I and his sister Margaret of Navarre who was one of the leading intellectuals of the French Renaissance; Calvin who fled to Angoulême to escape persecution in Paris and started his Institutes in the library of his friend, canon du Tillet; Molière and Balzac who used Angoulême as a model for satire of provincial manners; and also Delacroix, Stendhal, Ezra Pound, Charles Morgan and even Fangio... These and many other stories, anecdotes, songs and poems are collected and introduced here, the first book in English about the rich history of the Angoumois.