For many Le Mans is synonymous with the well known 24 hour motoring event but of course it is much more than that.

On the banks of the River Sarthe in the Département of the same name as it flows south towards the River Mayenne. It is located to the north east of Angers and to the north west of Tours. Often known as the City of the Plantagenets, it was here that Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou and his wife Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England, produced the future Henry II.

Cathédrale St-Julien

The Vieux Ville is on the south or left bank of the the Sarthe and the outstanding building is the Gothic Cathédrale of St-Julien with its ‘Y’ shaped, two-tiered flying buttresses. Check out the 13th century stained glass windows which light up the Choir and the subtle way in which the Medieval archetects have aligned the Gothic Choir with the Romanesque Transept.