The popularity of the bande dessinée (comic strip or graphic novel) in France is staggering – over 30 million books sold each year, and le BD as it commonly abbrviated is considered a Ninth Art, according it a status on a par with architecture, painting, music and poetry. The undisputed comic strip centre of the universe is the town of Angoulême in Charente, which holds an annual comic strip festival pulling crowds of around a quarter of a million, and is home to the Musée de la Bande Dessinée (Comics Museum) and Cité Internationale de la Bande Dessinée et de l'Image (CIBDI).