Angoulême is a city of two identities. The first is the old one: a medieval hilltop town perched on a dramatic limestone plateau above the Charente river, fortified by walls, crowned by a Romanesque cathedral, and surrounded by the paper-making industry that made it prosperous for four centuries. The second is the newer one: the self-proclaimed world capital of bande dessinée — comic strips — home to the annual Festival International de la Bande Dessinée that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors every January and has covered the city's walls with enormous murals of cartoon characters.
These two identities coexist more comfortably than you might expect. The old town on the plateau is genuinely handsome: the Angoulême Cathedral is one of the great Romanesque buildings of the Charente, its facade a riot of carved figures and geometric ornament. The ramparts that run around the plateau's edge offer sweeping views over the Charente valley and the lower town below. The Centre International de la Bande Dessinée is a serious museum, not a theme park, with a collection tracing the history of the form from early illustrated books to contemporary graphic novels.
The city is on the main Paris-Bordeaux TGV line, making it an accessible stop for anyone travelling between the two. Cognac is 45 minutes to the west; Saintes is an hour by train. The annual BD festival usually takes place in the last week of January and fills every hotel room for thirty kilometres in every direction.