Musée de la Magie

Angers is a city on the Maine river in Anjou, best known for its great castle and its medieval tapestry. The Musée de la Magie is devoted to the history and art of magic, and it is wise to check opening times and contents with the tourist office before planning a visit.

Magic as a theatrical art has a long history in France. The man who is often called the father of modern conjuring was Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, a clockmaker from Blois, who in the 1840s opened a small theatre in Paris where he performed elegant illusions in evening dress, replacing the market-stall style of earlier conjurers, and whose automata and tricks, based on his engineering skill, were a sensation. The American Harry Houdini took his stage name in homage to him. The pioneer of cinema Georges Méliès, who ran the Théâtre Robert-Houdin after him, used stage illusions as the basis for his trick films at the end of the nineteenth century, and the link between magic and cinema is one of the most interesting parts of the story. A museum of magic usually shows how these traditions developed.

In a collection of this kind, you would expect to find old props and apparatus, such as boxes for sawing a person in half, disappearing cabinets, cups and balls and card tricks, along with posters from the golden age of music halls, rare books on conjuring and mechanical devices. Many such museums add interactive elements, where visitors can try a simple trick with a magician's guidance, or watch a short demonstration, and they are popular with children as well as adults. The pleasure comes from the curiosity of seeing how an effect is produced, and from the characters of the great magicians.

Whatever the museum has to offer, Angers has much to see around it. The Château d'Angers, with its seventeen towers and the monumental fourteenth-century Apocalypse Tapestry, the Cathédrale Saint-Maurice, the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine are the main attractions, and the Place du Ralliement and the Quartier Saint-Aubin are good places for a stroll.

The museum suits families, those who enjoy performing arts and visitors who want to add a lighter stop to a day of heritage. Allow an hour.