Journée Portes Ouvertes et Essais Gratuits
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Come discover our collection of 22,000 books in English and assortment of cultural activities! This day is an excellent opportunity to discover the English-language Library in Angers. We are a registered non-profit organization and proudly house the second-largest collection of English-language books in France. We currently have 2,000 members from 76 different countries. You are welcome to join us to:
Program for activity free trials: 14h – 14:45 | ENGLISH CONVERSATION GROUP (Adults) 15h – 15:45 | ENGLISH CAMP (Collégiens) 16h – 16:45 | CHILDREN’S HOUR (3-6 years old) To ensure the free trials run smoothly, we kindly ask that you reserve your spot in advance. |
Book Club reads “The Schoolhouse”
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The June read for the book club is “The Schoolhouse by Sophie Ward. The Book Club is full for the 2024-2025 year. If you would like to join the waiting list, please send an e-mail to reception. We also invite you to consider joining Books and Tea or Saturday Reading Group! |
Walk and Talk
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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. |
Summer Book Sale!
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Stock up for a summer of reading with light, breezy popular fiction and novels from our Summer Book Sale! Perfect books to take to the beach or enjoy on the plane! From Tuesday, June 17th to Saturday, July 12th during opening hours. Books for 2 € each, all proceeds go to funding the library’s many activities that you know and love.
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Saturday Reading Group
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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 “Miss Iceland” by Audur Ava Olafsdottir. 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.
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Author Talk: Alexander Dickow
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Alexander Dickow is a poet, novelist, translator, and scholar of literature. Originally from Idaho in the northwestern United States, he writes in both French and English. Alexander will focus on the relationships between three of his works: his latest book (in English), The Distance, and You In It, which is a narrative and dramatic poem (BlazeVOX Books, 2025), and the second is Le Premier Souper, a science fiction novel in French from La Volte (2021) as well as the new novel he is currently working on, also science fictional and also in French. Alexander will talk about how his works in French and English are different, what makes him write in both languages, and the role of translation in his work.
Free and open to the public. No reservation necessary. This event is in partnership with Maison Julien Gracq.
Literary Works: The Distance, and You In It (BlazeVOX Books, 2025), Le Premier Souper (La Volte, 2021), Déblais (Louise Bottu, 2022), Appétits (La Rumeur Libre, 2022), Rhapsodie curieuse (Louise Bottu, 2017). |
Reading Shakespeare
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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. |
Garden Club visit
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On Thursday afternoon, June 5th, the Garden Club will visit the Arboretum in Angers. You can find information about the Arboretum here. This guided visit will take place in English. The cost of the visit will vary depending on the number of people attending but it should be no more than 12€. If needed, we can try to arrange a ride for you. We always plan lunch at a nearby restaurant before each garden visit, and you are welcome to bring snacks to enjoy afterward. If you would like more information about this activity, or if you would like to join us for the visit (or the visit + lunch), send an email to GardenClub@ellia.org. Future Garden Visits:
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*Date change* Saturday Reading Group
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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. Please note: the library will be closed on this day, so we will meet as a group in front of the library at 3:00 PM before walking together to a nearby café for our discussion.
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Angers Literary Festival: Possible Futures
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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. |
