Agen

The city of Agen lies in the southern department Lot-et-Garonne in the Aquitaine region. The city centre lies on the east bank of the Garonne river close to the Canal de Garonne, approximately halfway between Bordeaux (132 km, 82 mi) and Toulouse (107 km, 66 mi).

From Occitan Agen (1197), itself from Latin Aginnum (3rd century Itinéraire d'Antonin), from a Celtic root agin- meaning "rock or height".[7]

The town has a higher level of unemployment than the national average. Major employers include the pharmaceutical factory UPSA.

The old centre of town contains a number of medieval buildings.

The twelfth century Agen Cathedral, dedicated to Saint Caprasius, is one of the few large churches in France with a double nave, a regional trait also found in the Church of the Jacobins in nearby Toulouse.

The Saint Hilaire church, dedicated to the theme of the Holy Trinity which the Saint in question did a lot to defend, is notable for its unusual statues in front of the Church – Moses on the right, and St Peter on the left.

The Fine Arts museum, Musée des Beaux Arts contains artefacts, furniture and sculptures from prehistoric times onwards. The art gallery contains several hundred works, including several by Goya, and others by Bonnard and Seurat. The collection also contains a large number of works by artists who lived locally. The museum is made up of twenty or so rooms.[8]

The Canal des Deux Mers, which joins the Mediterranean with the Atlantic, crosses the river Garonne at Agen via the town's famous canal bridge.

The municipal theatre "Théâtre Ducourneau" presents theatre, and occasionally classical concerts. The smaller "Théâtre du jour" has a resident theatre company presenting a variety of recent or older plays (Shakespeare, Beckett, as well as lesser known playwrights).

There are two cinemas, one a commercial multiscreened affair, the other an arts cinema run by a voluntary organization. The latter organizes film festivals every year.

Rugby is extremely popular in the town, and the local team, SU Agen, is enthusiastically supported. The town also serves as the base for the Team Lot-et-Garonne cycling team.

The Gare d'Agen connects Agen with Toulouse and Bordeaux as well as Périgueux. It is around an hour from Toulouse and around an hour from Bordeaux. The TGV train to Paris takes three hours and thirteen minutes with a stop in Bordeaux.

Agen is connected, by the A62 autoroute, to both Toulouse and Bordeaux.

The Agen Airport is serviced by Airlinair service to Paris Orly 6 days a week. It is also used for business and leisure flying.

Agen stands on the voie verte cycle path between the Mediterranean and close to Bordeaux.

Agen is the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese that comprises the Département of Lot and Garonne. It is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Bordeaux.

Agen is twinned with:[9]

• Tuapse, Russia
• Dinslaken, Germany
• Llanelli, Wales, United Kingdom
• Toledo, Spain
• Corpus Christi, Texas, United States

As place of birth

• Bernard Palissy (c. 1510–1590), potter – according to some accounts, he may have been born in Saintes
• Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540–1609), scholar
• Pierre Dupuy (1582–1651), scholar
• Joseph Barsalou (1600–1660), physician
• Godefroi, comte d'Estrades (1607–1686), diplomatist and marshal
• Bernard Germain Étienne comte de La Ville-sur-Illon La Cépède (1756–1825), naturalist
• Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent (1780–1846), naturalist
• Jacques Jasmin (1798–1864), Provençal poet
• Victor Rabu (1834–1907), architect who built many important churches in Montevideo, Uruguay
• Joseph Chaumié (1849–1919), politician
• William Grover-Williams (1903–1945) racer and SOE agent
• Michel Serres (born 1930), philosopher and author
• Jacques Sadoul (born 1934), author
• Jean Cruguet (born 1939), jockey who won the U.S. Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing.
• Alain Aspect (born 1947), physicist
• Francis Cabrel (born 1953), singer-songwriter and guitarist
• Bernard Campan (born 1958), actor and film director
• Emmanuel Flipo (born 1958), artist
• Stéphane Rideau (born 1976), actor
• Aymeric Laporte (born 1994), footballer

As residence

• Nostradamus lived in Agen from 1531 until at least 1534. He was married to a local woman with whom he had two children.

Agen is the "capital of the prune", a local product consumed as a sweet, either stuffed with prune purée or in pastries, or as a dessert, e.g., prunes soaked in Armagnac, a type of brandy. On the last weekend of August, a prune festival comprises rock concerts, circus performances and prune tastings.

The first Jews settled in the town in the twelfth century AD. They were expelled from the town in 1306. A number of Jews returned to the town in 1315, and a "Rue des Juifs" is documented ever since this period. In 1968, about 600 Jews lived in the town, though most of them had emigrated from North Africa.[10] A Jewish synagogue still exists in the town.[11]

• SU Agen Lot-et-Garonne, a French rugby union club based in Agen
• Agenais, or Agenois, a former province of France

• INSEE statistics

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Agen.

• Site de la ville
• Office de tourisme
• Diocese of Agen – Catholic Encyclopædia article