Maine–et–Loire is located on a major communication road between Paris and the central part of the Atlantic coast, i.e.: Nantes, Bordeaux, La Rochelle, etc.
Such a key position on a major motorway and railway leads to a significant movement of people and goods. The companies and the inhabitants of Maine-et-Loire feed this transport flow and at the same time take advantage of it.
For example, for a growing number of Angers residents, Paris is much closer than it appears on a map (1 hour 30 minutes by TGV (high-speed train).

In the heart of the Greater West, Maine-et-Loire holds an advantageous position between the Basin of Paris and the Atlantic Coast.

As part of the administrative region of Pays de la Loire, it actively takes part in the dynamism that brings life to the three regions of the Greater West (Brittany, Pays de Loire and Lower Normandy). It is the second industrial centre in the West.

A close network of relations between, towns, villages, and the countryside has ensured stable development.

The surface area of Maine–et–Loire is 7,165 Km©&Mac247; (1,770,503 acres). There are 363 towns in addition to its three built-up areas.

The 3 urban centres are:

• Angers: a centre of industrial and tertiary activity, endowed with a real tourist capital.
• Cholet: in the heart of the Mauges. It has been an industrial and technological centre for more than half a century. 40 % of industry in this County is concentrated in this area (fashion, shoes, plastics technology).
• Saumur: a tourist centre that is also famous for its agribusiness and viticulture.

The Federating River Loire

When the river traffic alone generated a tremendous development process, the counties that the rivers crossed became favoured places for setting up business and essential passageways.

Today, even if this role has changed through the creation of new means of transport and networks of communication, the river is still an important development issue for Maine-et-Loire. The Loire is the biggest river basin in France. It has become part of our natural heritage and has been reconstructed to benefit tourists and town-dwellers. It opens the Anjou landscape to Nantes and the Val de Loire.

The climate

A mean temperature characterizes the Maine–et–Loire climate. The Anjou mildness is a mixture of light, humidity, mild but radiant sunlight and favourable oceanic fragrances.

A Mosaic of Natural Landscapes

Anjou combines the hills of the Armorican Massif with the plains of the Paris Basin. These are criss-crossed by the Loire and its numerous tributaries. There is a variety of landscapes, such as black Anjou, from the shale or the Segreen and Mauges granite, white Anjou, from the white sands and the “tuffeau”  (sandy chalk) in Baugeois and Saumurois. The Loire Valley is full of hesitance between the golden sand and the hillsides, the blue water, the crystalline rocks of the old massif, the broom and silver birches of the pastureland and the sprawling forests. This whole mosaic of landscapes forms an infinite palette of colours, which change every kilometre.