What’s happening

Get on those hiking boots and take some time to revel in the great outdoors! The group “Walk and Talk” organises an easy walk once a month – approximately 10 km, 2 to 3 hours in the afternoon – in order to discover or re-discover the beautiful hiking paths of the Maine-et-Loire. Come along with good walking shoes, protection against rain, cold or heat according to the season…. a bottle of water and a little “en-cas” to keep your stamina up !

Maximum group is 20 so make sure to sign up!

Want to sign up? Easy as pie!

Sign up by sending your name, email address and phone numbers (perferably cell phone) to this email address. You will be sent full details of the walk in due time.

The library is an authorised test center for the TOEIC Listening and Reading Test (the Test of English for International Communication). For more information please visit our TOEIC page or to sign up go to the official ETS website.

“Books and Tea” is a monthly meeting, on a Thursday, for bookworms and tea drinkers. Bring a book you’ve really enjoyed, talk about it and pass it on! The group meets from 2:15 to 3:45 at La P’tite Cigogne, 23 rue du Musée in Angers. No need to sign up, just come and enjoy!

Join the library community for a special moment to talk about anything and everything (in English of course)! Just come in and chat with others, have a cuppa and enjoy the company. Coffee House is open to all library members. No need to reserve!  Recommended donation of 1 €.

Come along and bring your knitting,

Have a natter while you’re sitting,

Or learn to knit with wool provided,

Needles loaned and stitches guided.

Knitted garments are très chic,

So be in vogue and start this week.

Knit and Natter is a free activity, open to all library members. No need to reserve, just come and enjoy! If anyone has some extra yarn please bring it in.

Treat yourself to an afternoon of a collective reading of one of Shakespeare’s plays. This activity consists of watching a BBC production on DVD and then reading relative scenes. This is a great activity for lovers of language and fans of the great wit. Free and open to all library members. For more information or to sign-up, please contact the group coordinator here. The number of participants is limited.

Our future is full of more questions than answers right now. How can we protect our democracies?  How can we fight for human rights in a social media landscape filled with misinformation? How can we cope with climate change and ever-worsening wildfires, hurricanes, and droughts? Who should we listen to when deciding how to live ethically in response to today’s challenges?

We have little precedent for how to answer questions like these. And all too often, when we turn to television or film, we find grim, stark, and dystopian portrayals of the future.

That is why we need stories about other possible futures to tell ourselves and our children. We are proud to present the 2025 Angers Literary Festival, where we will hear from six thinkers on this topic. France 24’s Erin Ogunkeye will help lead the day. Amanda Bankert will talk about how veganism and food politics are changing in France and globally. Amy Plum will delve into how inclusivity and identity in young adult fiction is continuing to grow and evolve. Daniel Levin Becker will tell us about Indivisible Cities, a project from the French literary collective Oulipo that created fictional representations of cities under climate pressure and the role narratives play in advancing climate action. Kristina Kearns will explore the reality that even though only a narrow group of people is able to get published, the opportunity to experiment is more accessible than ever before. And Barbara Diggs will share how the history of Civil Rights era marches, boycotts, and strikes could continue to shape our politics in the present and future.

At a time when we are facing unprecedented attacks on our access to knowledge, libraries remain a safe harbor for the free exchange of diverse voices and ideas. We believe in the power of books and conversations to inspire and shape the future we’ll share tomorrow. 

We are honored to announce that our festival will be supported by The de Groot Foundation which believes free speech and civil discourse are essential tools for exploring the defining issues of our times.

We hope you will join us for a day that will be filled with fascinating, illuminating, and hopeful discussions about our possible futures.

Discover the Full Festival Program

Learn about our 2025 Featured Speakers

This in-person only event is free and open to the public. Registration is required as space is limited.

The Saturday Reading Group is for anyone who loves to read, socialize in English, and meet new people.  For this meeting, the group will read “Mr. Wilder and Me” by Jonathan Coe.

Meetings are once a month on Saturday afternoons starting at 3 pm. Open to all library members. To sign up please contact the group coordinator at bookgroup@ellia.org.

Come and play (simple) Bridge (cardgame) at the library! Engage in a brain-stimulating sport: the Mini Bridge Exclusive Society. Discover, learn and play Mini Bridge in a relaxed, casual and informal ambiance. Mini Bridge, as developed by MBES allows and encourages

• conversations while playing the game,
• comments and remarks before, during and after the game,
• second thoughts,
• not taking oneself too seriously,

…in a nutshell, MBES (Mini Bridge Exclusive Society) proposes a different concept from the competing conventional Bridge Clubs.

It is free and open to members of the library. Please contact the library to join!

Welcome to “Write Here, Write Now”!

Join this series of workshops for people who love to write in English and don’t mind sharing what they’ve written (although this sharing is not mandatory). We’ll explore different themes and genres. Keenan Brown, a library volunteer, will guide you through different ways to stimulate your writing and keep you inspired, all in the company of lovers of literature.

“You can make anything by writing” (C.S. Lewis). Following Lewis’s invitation, let’s explore the world at large, as well as your own secret gardens through words… all while discovering the unknown realms of the writing of others.

Workshops will be run Wednesday evenings from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the library once a month. They are free for library members (maximum of 10 participants). For more information and/or to sign up, please contact the group leader.