An abbey and a racetrack

Tuesday 22^nd April

Today saw us travel north from Chinon to Le Mans where we are staying the night.

Leaving Chinon we visited the Abbaye de Fontevraud where Heny II, his wife Eleanor of Aquitane and Richard the Lionheart are buried. The abbey dates from 1100 and was last used as an abbey in 1792 when the last Abbess fled the abbey. From early 1800s it served as a prison until the 1970s. It is now used for conferences, cultural events and entertainment – as well as tourism.

Abbaye de Fontevraud

Beautiful marble carvings around an entry off the cloisters

Tombs of Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitane, their son
Richard the Lionheart and the wife of
another son of Henry and Eleanor.

View across the gardens to the cloisters.

 

The kitchens. Each of the rounded sections is a fireplace
and the pointed tops are chimneys.
They would use a fireplace depending on the prevailing winds.

Rob did the tour of the Le Mans museum which chronicles the history of Le Mans 24 hr race – the people, the circuit and the cars. I had a good book so stayed in the car. After a purchase in the gift shop we paid for access to the track – not the track itself, but all the grounds. There was a practice session going on for formula Atlantics so we were able to see the track in use. We were able to drive to all the viewpoints of the track and also to the pit area where we saw Sebastian Loeb’s trucks and his race cars, and other teams setting up for the coming weekend’s national sports car event. Photos follow of course.On to Le Mans. If you are not interested in cars then here is where you tune out.

At the entrance to the track.

Race car...

Another race car....

More race cars....

The famous Dunlop footbridge.

Sebastian Loeb's race car

Tonight we are staying in a different hotel chain – Mister Bed. Apart from the sign on the roof it could be one of the others we have come to know and love. :) We are in the University area of Le Mans and the end of the tram line is a 2 minute walk so we took the tram into the old city for dinner tonight. The travel was the easy part of the dinner – choosing a restaurant is the hard part. Tonight we tried Indian, just for a bit of variety, and now we are back in the room having dessert we picked up at a patisserie earlier today.

Part of the old town of Le Mans. It doesn't show up real well in the
photo but the chimney on the house in the centre of the photo
has a real bend in it. Love the woodwork on the walls.

Le Mans tram.