The Jean-Lurçat Museum and Contemporary Tapestry in Angers, France.

© Lucille Cottin/Shutterstock

Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine

Top choice in Angers


Inspired by the Apocalypse Tapestry in the château, Jean Lurçat (1892–1966) began his epic tapestry masterpiece, Le Chant du Monde (Song of the World; 1957–61), just 12 years after the slaughter of WWII; scenes depict everything from the delights of Champagne to space exploration to nuclear holocaust. A quintessentially mid-20th-century meditation on the human condition, it is exuberant but contemplative, and only guardedly optimistic. The museum also exhibits a changing kaleidoscope of extraordinarily beautiful 20th-century and 21st-century tapestries.

Situated 1.2km north of the château, on the opposite bank of the Maine.