We didn’t really have a clear goal for tonight, apart from “somewhere north towards the ferry at Caen”. Our original intent had been to stay near Tours so we could have a look at the city and walk on the banks of the Loire, but I couldn’t get keen about any of the sites from their reviews online.


The autoroutes of France are a pleasure to drive: much less traffic than in Britain, quite scenic and with plenty of aires to stop at. We made good time up the N10 (dual carriageway all the way from Bordeaux to Tours, a free alternative to the péage) then the A26.


We stopped several times at the aires: its nice to stop on rest areas which are just that, often with nice landscaping and decent toilet facilities, & much nicer than the service stations at home. One was great, with facilities housed in a pretty stone building and with extensive grounds planted with all sorts of attractive plants. There were information boards explaining the flora & fauna so we had a stroll through the pergolas and paths. All aires should be like this!






Le Mans seemed like a good place to stop - as it was only mid-afternoon and would give us an easy run to Ouistreham tomorrow, we booked into Camping Le Pont Romain at Yvré l’Évêque for the night. There were very few outfits here and this site DEFINITELY got our approval: quiet but close to Le Mans and the autoroute, ACSI accepted therefore good value, spotless facilities in a heated block, bread delivered in the morning, spacious level pitches and a very pleasant English speaking receptionist.





As it was still quite early, we got settled then went off to explore Le Mans. Hubby is very keen on motor sport and of course the town is a very famous racing venue; it would have been nice to go the motor museum, but it was due to close soon so we decided to try & drive as much of the 24hr circuit as we could. We found a sign to Mulsanne & presumed the famous Mulsanne Straight would be in that direction, so we headed past the tram tracks and out of town.




There indeed was the famous stretch, and R was very pleased to be driving it, albeit quite a lot more slowly than the racers would. It is part of the main road out of town and was filled with teatime traffic, but we saw several chicanes and could appreciate what it might be like. The road back to town took us down some more of the circuit and past the entrance to the grandstand and workshop areas, so Hubby was quite pleased with our outing. We vowed that next time we would come and stay in the area for a few days so we had chance to explore properly.