Le Mans and surrounding area

Amboise is awesome. The Steve McQueen Le Mans flick was, too, although I haven’t been to the city. We stayed in Amboise several years ago, and besides the city itself, it was a fabulous base for visiting nearby Loire chateaux. Here’s more, from Rick Steves himself: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/amboise-charming-visitors-since-leonardo-da-vinci

Not sure what you're interested in, but you have a lot of choices and as Le Mans is a bit of a regional railway hub, it'll be easy to get around.

I spent a day in Le Mans last June and really enjoyed it. In fact, I wish I had had a couple more days (though you can see the heart of the city in one). If you're at all interested in history, especially medieval history, Le Mans is wonderful. It's 1 am my time and I'm super bleary, so I can't offer much more detail just now, but I remember several really helpful posts recounting past trips. If you search through the older posts for "Le Mans," I'm sure you'll find them. If you're not very interested in history, I still think you'd still find the atmosphere pleasant for a day.

You're also super close by local train to lots of other great places. Another poster mentioned Amboise, which I also really liked. Chartres isn't far either. Angers is about an hour away by train and a city that is, it seemed to me, quite under-appreciated by North Americans.

Caroline

This is what I wrote about Le Mans in 2019:

“ LE MANS: When I am planning trips, I do a lot of searching around vicinities of towns I want to see. Once I saw that Le Mans had both a well-preserved medieval section of town and Roman walls with intricate designs, I was willing to do another 1-night stop to explore and photograph Le Mans. And, wow, Le Mans did not disappoint! I wandered every lane through the Plantagenet historical section and down to the Roman wall. The ancient wall around Le Mans is one of the most complete remaining Gallo-Roman city walls. This area was also popular in the evening for people to come eat at the restaurants.

For Le Mans, I stayed at La Demeure de Laclais B&B and reserved their lavender-colored room. This big room has three sets of windows looking out at the cathedral! I was going to have the best viewing for their evening Light Show since my B&B room looked right at the cathedral. Sadly, no points given for that light show that I saw at the cathedral and fountain.

This B&B also makes their own jams, and I tried several on my breakfast croissant and bread. How do they make it taste SO good? I would gladly purchase several jars if it was available at home. The apricot jam had a rich flavor with a hint of sweet Fall spices.”

And about nearby Angers:

“ ANGERS: I described Chartres as strikingly beautiful; Angers can only be described equally as outpouring awe! A fortress castle like none I’ve ever seen contains the medieval tapestry of 1375, illustrating the Book of Revelation Apocalypse tapestry - the reason I was willing to do another 1-night stay. I had so much fun at the fortress! First, the tapestries were even better than I anticipated with just small groups of people there when I went in both times. Then, the fortress was a climbing adult playground with so much to see! I ate at the café inside the fortress and tried my first citron presse. Hours later after I exited the fortress and was taking photos of the towers outside from ground level with the beautifully designed gardens, it still was surreal even photographing them!

For Angers, I stayed at Hotel Continental which is located behind the Opera House on Place du Ralliement square – a very handy location since the tram from the train station stops at the square. This hotel is a no frills but perfectly adequate hotel. I purchased their breakfast since my train was leaving late morning. A funny discovery was that the L’Arelequin shop that I wanted to photograph ended up being right next door to my hotel!

Angers has a young vibe and Parisian architecture. I really enjoyed walking around town and being at the Place du Ralliment in the evening and could picture it as a possible city if staying for several days.”

Also, about Chartres:

“ CHARTRES: During the trip planning stage, this town was a high priority. I even purchased the Chartres Cathedral book authored by Malcolm Miller ahead of time to prepare to see & understand the stained glass.

Wow, just jaw dropping! I had the same reaction stepping into this cathedral and first seeing the stained glass as I did last year when I saw my first Ravenna mosaic! The glass colors glittered like expensive jewelry under display lights! Looking in every direction, the cathedral interior was strikingly beautiful!
I spent over four hours in the Chartres Cathedral. Malcolm was gone that week, but I really appreciated how passionate his protégé tour guide was who gave 2-hr English tours in the afternoon. She also took us through the crypt and showed us levels of history. I would gladly come back and take this tour again with her!

In Chartres, I booked a beautiful B&B, Le Jardin Cathedrale, that was just two blocks from the cathedral. The beautifully decorated French home was lovely, and my gray decorated room was just as perfect as the photos. Yet, my favorite was her garden – lots of overflowing white flowers and greenery and an inviting patio table. I enjoyed reflecting in the peaceful garden afterwards about what I saw and learned that day in the cathedral.

Chartres Light Show was my favorite of all that I experienced. They won points for best use of the building as a cathedral, not just a backdrop, and best dramatic music enhancing the show theme. Chartres also had various light displays around the city that were fun to explore & see.

The B&B setting was very peaceful, but at night the street was noisy, and I could hear the music from the light show nearby. The next morning after breakfast I had 30 minutes before I needed to walk to the train station, so I went back to the cathedral for another look at that amazing stained glass! On Fridays, the chairs are moved back from the huge labyrinth, so people can walk on it. Since it was a Friday, I enjoyed my last moments walking some of its path.”

I agree with recommendations for Le Mans. Before we went there, I had read that the Roman wall was worth seeing, but I figured it was probably some battered old stonework. I was wrong. The Romans built a wall up the side of a cliff using patterned brick. It's high, long, and amazing.

The old part of the city at the top of the hill has so many half-timbered buildings that it has often been used in period movies. The cathedral has a beautiful chapel ceiling showing angels playing musical instruments. There's a menhir alongside one of the cathedral's doors.

The light show isn't a patch on the one at Chartres but if you're already there, it's worth walking around to see all of them.

We were surprised to see a street named for Wilbur Wright. I later learned that he did some flying demos there in 1908. The Michelin green guide has an excellent section on Le Mans.

There's a great trip report episode on the wonderful Join Us In France Travel Podcast about a trip to Le Mans.

https://joinusinfrance.com/episode/adventures-at-the-24-hours-of-le-mans/

Have you secured accommodation in/near Le Mans already? If not, I would bet there won't be any hotels available at this stage. So, you might end up staying in a different town anyway. La Flèche and Laval are reasonable choices.
If you found something in Le Mans already, bravo.