Duchy of Anjou in the context of "House of Valois-Anjou"

Perry or pear cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally in England (particularly Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire), parts of South Wales, France (especially Normandy and Anjou), Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Interest is growing in artisanal perry production in the fruit-growing regions of the northwest United States. Perry typically has an alcohol content ranging from 5 to 8% ABV, but is sometimes distilled into calvados with 40-43% ABV, and blended with further pear juice to produce a fortified drink around 17% ABV.

The County of Anjou (UK: /ˈɒ̃ʒuː, ˈæ̃ʒuː/, US: /ɒ̃ˈʒuː, ˈæn(d)ʒuː, ˈɑːnʒuː/; French: [ɑ̃ʒu]; Latin: Andegavia) was a French county that was the predecessor to the Duchy of Anjou. Its capital was Angers, and its area was roughly co-extensive with the diocese of Angers. Anjou was bordered by Brittany to the west, Maine to the north, Touraine to the east and Poitou to the south. Its 12th-century Count Geoffrey created the nucleus of what became the Angevin Empire. The adjectival form is Angevin, and inhabitants of Anjou are known as Angevins. In 1360, the county was raised into the Duchy of Anjou within the Kingdom of France. This duchy was later absorbed into the French royal domain in 1482, and remained a province of the kingdom until 1790.

Mayenne (French: [majɛn] ) is a landlocked department in northwest France named after the river Mayenne. Mayenne is part of the administrative region of Pays de la Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Manche, Orne, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire, and Ille-et-Vilaine.

Mayenne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. The northern two thirds correspond to the western part of the former province of Maine. The southern third of Mayenne corresponds to the northern portion of the old province of Anjou. The inhabitants of the department are called Mayennais. It had a population of 307,062 in 2019.

Angers (French: [ɑ̃ʒe] , UK: /ˈɒ̃ʒeɪ/, US: /ɒ̃ˈʒeɪ, ˈændʒərz/;) is a city in western France, about 300 km (190 mi) southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture 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 or, more rarely, Angeriens.

Angers proper covers 42.70 square kilometres (16.49 sq mi) and has a population of 154,508 inhabitants, while around 432,900 live in its metropolitan area (aire d'attraction). The Angers Loire Métropole is made up of 29 communes covering 667 square kilometres (258 sq mi) with 299,500 inhabitants (2018). Not including the broader metropolitan area, Angers is the third most populous commune in northwestern France after Nantes and Rennes and the 18th most populous commune in France.

The War in the Vendée (French: Guerre de Vendée [ɡɛʁ də vɑ̃de]) was a counter-revolutionary insurrection that took place in the Vendée region of France from 1793 to 1796, during the French Revolution. The Vendée is a coastal region, located immediately south of the river Loire in western France. Initially, the revolt was similar to the 14th-century Jacquerie peasant uprising, but the Vendée quickly became counter-revolutionary and Royalist. The revolt was comparable to the Chouannerie, which took place concurrently (1794–1800) in the area north of the Loire.

While elsewhere in France the revolts against the levée en masse were repressed, an insurgent territory, called the Vendée militaire by historians, formed south of the Loire-Inférieure (Brittany), south-west of Maine-et-Loire (Anjou), north of Vendée and north-west of Deux-Sèvres (Poitou). Gradually referred to as the "Vendeans", the insurgents established in April a "Catholic and Royal Army" which won a succession of victories in the spring and summer of 1793. The rebels briefly overran the towns of Fontenay-le-Comte, Thouars, Saumur and Angers, but were halted at the Battle of Nantes.

A tomb effigy (French: gisant ("lying")) is a sculpted effigy of a deceased person usually shown lying recumbent on a rectangular slab, presented in full ceremonial dress or wrapped in a shroud, and shown either dying or shortly after death. Such funerary and commemorative reliefs were first developed in Ancient Egyptian and Etruscan cultures, and appear most frequently in Western European tombs from the late 11th century, in a style that continued in use through the Renaissance and early modern period, and is still sometimes used. They typically represent the deceased in a state of "eternal repose", with hands folded in prayer, lying on a pillow, awaiting resurrection. A husband and wife may be depicted lying side by side.

Medieval life-size recumbent effigies were first used for tombs of royalty and senior clerics, before spreading to the nobility. A particular type of late medieval effigy was the transi, or cadaver monument, in which the effigy is in the macabre form of a decomposing corpse, or such a figure lies on a lower level, beneath a more conventional effigy. Mourning or weeping figures, known as pleurants were added to important tombs below the effigy. Non-recumbent types of effigy became popular during the Renaissance. By the early Modern period, European effigies were often shown as alive, either kneeling or in a more active pose, especially for military figures. Variations show the deceased lying on their side as if reading, kneeling in prayer, or even standing. The recumbent effigy had something of a revival during the 19th-century Gothic revival, especially for bishops and other clerics.

Vitré (French pronunciation: [vitʁe] ; Gallo: Vitræ, Breton: Gwitreg) is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France.

Vitré, a sub-prefecture until 1926, is the seat of a canton. It has 18,603 inhabitants (2020). It lies on the edge of Brittany, near Normandy, Maine, and Anjou. The town has been designated a ville d'art et d'histoire, a town of artistic and historic significance, by the Ministry of Culture in recognition of its rich cultural inheritance. Vitré is the 37th French city with the most historic buildings and has 14% of the historical monuments of the department.

The Château de Montsoreau is a Flamboyant Gothic castle in the Loire Valley, directly built in the Loire riverbed. It is located in the market town of Montsoreau, in the Maine-et-Loire département of France, close to Saumur, Chinon, Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, and Candes-Saint-Martin. The Château de Montsoreau is situated at the confluence of two rivers, the Loire and the Vienne, and the meeting point of three historical regions: Anjou, Poitou, and Touraine.

A Gallo-Roman origin has been verified for the settlement of Montsoreau but not confirmed for the castle, even though a fluted column made of stone from a Gallo-Roman temple or a public building was found in the moat during the restoration works of the end of the 20th century. The first written sources are from the 6th century with the domain of Restis, but it was only with the construction of a fortress at the end of the 10th century that the market town began to become prosperous. One part of this first castle was found during the same restoration works by the archaeologists. The castle was reconstructed in a Flamboyant Gothic style between 1450 and 1460 by Jean de Chambes, one of the kingdom's wealthiest men, a senior councillor and chamberlain to King Charles VII and King Louis XI.