Cholet, Maine-et-Loire Département, Pays de la Loire, France

🇫🇷 Cholet is a commune of western France in the Maine-et-Loire department. It was the capital of military Vendée. It is the second most populous commune of Maine-et-Loire, after the prefecture Angers.

Cholet stands on an eminence on the right bank of the river Moine, which is crossed by a bridge from the fifteenth century. It is about 50 km south-east of Nantes. Cholet is the centre of the Agglomeration community of Cholet with about 107,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the arrondissement of Cholet and of the cantons Cholet-1 and Cholet-2.

The town owes the rise of its prosperity to the settlement of weavers there by Édouard Charles Victurnien Colbert [Wikidata], count of Maulévrier, a brother of the great Jean-Baptiste Colbert. It then became an estate of Gabriel-François de Rougé  and marquess of Cholet, who developed the town and its economy. The main commercial mall, opened in 2009, is named after him: the "Arcades Rougé".

During the early years of the French revolutionary wars, the town found itself at the heart of the counter-revolutionary struggle in the Vendée, culminating in October 1793 with the Battle of Cholet which was won by the republicans and followed by a period of brutal government repression.

Sights A public garden occupies the site of the old castle; the public buildings and churches, for example the Church of the Sacred Heart (église du Sacré-Cœur, 1939), are modern. The Church of the Sacred Heart is in the Byzantine Romanesque style and was the work of the local architect Maurice Laurentin. The Church of Our Lady (église Notre-Dame) is listed as a "monument historique".

Megalithic monuments are numerous in the vicinity.

A textile museum (Musée du Textile) exists to conserve the traditional machines used to create the famous handkerchiefs made in this town, as well as the techniques used to make them and the oral and local history associated with the industry.

Economy At the start of the 20th century, there were granite quarries in the vicinity of the town. The chief industry was the manufacture of linen and linen handkerchiefs, which was also carried on in the neighboring communes on a large scale. Woolen and cotton fabrics were also produced, and bleaching and the manufacture of preserved foods were carried on. Cholet was the most important centre in France for the sale of fat cattle, sheep and pigs, for which Paris was the chief market.

Transport Cholet Aérodrome serves Cholet. The Gare de Cholet railway station offers regional services towards Nantes and Angers. The network of urban and periurban buses is provided by Choletbus.