Like many French adventures, it started at the train station. Unlike many French adventures, it didn’t involve some weird train story—strike, ghost train, missed connection or other typical public transportation drama.

In fact, the day trip was suspiciously easy and straightforward. Okay, it was incredibly hot until a sudden 5 p.m. thunderstorm but everything else was perfect, for a change.

Going to France this year was quite a leap of faith and every side trip feels like a small victory—we’re fine, we’re safe, we’re not doing anything crazy, the world is still turning!

Sure, we’ve been to Angers before but it’s an enjoyable destination with plenty of sights, starting with the massive medieval castle. The city is also very walkable and it still has dozens of small shops which are more interesting than franchises and chain stores.

My mom, Mark and I visited the castle again, then we wandered around for a few hours. Even though Angers is only a 45-minute train trip from Nantes, it’s a different département and culture—a medieval city centre in Angers versus an 18th-century French Atlantic slave trade centre, the Maine River versus the Loire River, pâté aux prunes (plum pie) versus kouign-aman (Breton cake, layers of butter and sugar folded in). Even street names sound exotic and different coming from Brittany.