The painted walls of Angoulême

A city transformed into a giant album

The idea had been germinating since the first festival in 1974, but it was in the late 1990s that the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l'image (CIBDI) began systematically commissioning mural works from cartoonists worldwide. Each piece is painted directly onto existing structures — blind gable-ends, fire walls, social-housing facades — using weather-resistant paints. Over time the collection grew from twenty to thirty works, some of which have been restored or replaced. Today around 25 murals remain officially visible, though the exact count shifts with building work and new commissions.

The approach is unique in France: this is not wild street art but a deliberate cultural policy placing comics on the same footing as classical wall painting. Some murals reproduce canonical series — a large gable given over to Corto Maltese, Lucky Luke's heroes riding a whole building — while others pay tribute to authors: Franquin, Hergé and Moebius all have their wall in the city that celebrates them at the comics museum.

Landmark works

Among the essential works, the Corto Maltese mural (rue de Beaulieu) is most often cited first: Hugo Pratt's adventurous sailor is depicted at monumental scale on a six-storey gable, with the sea and distant horizons he cherishes. Nearby, on the place du Champ de Mars, a large-scale trompe-l'œil dresses an entire facade in faux-relief figures, blending fictitious Baroque architecture with paper heroes. The tribute mural to Franquin (rue Hergé — an eloquent name) shows Gaston Lagaffe amid one of his habitual disasters, and the Marsupilami leaping along the cornice. Further north on the plateau, a mural devoted to Lucky Luke shows the lonesome cowboy 'who shoots faster than his shadow,' Jolly Jumper rearing against a Charentais sky.

The lower town is not forgotten: several murals run along the boulevards of L'Houmeau and near the station. A monumental scene with Astérix & Obélix occupies a blind wall visible from the main road, while an abstract mural honouring the pioneers of the Charentais illustrated press recalls that the image industry has been rooted here since the 19th century.

How to do the circuit

The circuit is entirely free and open. The Angoulême Tourist Office (place des Halles) publishes a free paper map of the painted-walls circuit, also downloadable from its website. It lists the 25 numbered murals with addresses and anecdotes. The full on-foot route covers roughly 4 to 5 kilometres from the upper town down to the lower town; it can be split into two one-hour loops depending on fitness and time. The murals are visible by day and night (most are not lit), but the raking light of early morning and late afternoon shows them to best advantage.