Exploring the city of Le Mans

Quai Louis Blanc car park beneath the ramparts

(S/E) Leave the car park by walking along Quai Louis Blanc. Cross Rue Wilbur Wright (tunnel) to take Rue Saint-Hilaire, which continues as Rue de la Porte Sainte-Anne. Turn right onto Rue de la Galère, then immediately left to reach Rue Gambetta. Follow this main road to the left as it leads back towards the city centre (Place de la République). Keep to the right and, at the end, turn right onto Rue du Port, then left onto Rue de Constantine.

(1) At the end of this street (No. 26) stands a beautiful house with vertical friezes designed by Maurice Levesque, one of Le Mans’ most prolific architects in the early 20th century. Turn left into Rue de Bône, then right into Rue du Docteur Leroy and left into Rue du Greffier. This street was developed after the Revolution.

(2) Walk past the Neyret glove factory (a fine building of light-coloured brick), which also employed women working from home. Turn left into Rue de Rivoli, then right into Rue de la Crochardière, left into Rue d’Austerlitz and left again into Rue Auvray.

(3) At No. 37 bis, a neo-Gothic townhouse was once a factory producing costumes for the theatre and cinema. Turn right onto Rue Wagram.

(4) You’ll pass the Hôtel des Ventes, which used to be an oil factory. Cross Avenue du Général Leclerc and continue along Rue Wagram until you reach Rue du Bourg Belé. Turn left onto this street, then right into Passage Contreau (a narrow alley).

(5) No. 1 is entirely decorated with a mosaic of earthenware shards. This city walk leads to Rue Nationale, which you follow to the right. Turn right into Passage Mangeard, which opens out onto Rue Mangeard on the left. Turn left onto it, pass the almost rural presbytery of Sainte-Jeanne-d’Arc and arrive on Rue Nationale to reach Place George Washington.

(6) In the centre of the square stands the statue of Chanzy (erected in 1969), a national monument to the^2nd Army of the Loire. Walk up Rue Chanzy, then turn right onto Rue de Joinville.

(7) Walk past the mansion which houses the General Council’s offices – formerly the army headquarters. Several scenes from the 1999 film *Les Blessures assassines* were filmed here.
Turn left onto Boulevard Paixans, then turn right into Rue de l’Arsenal.

(8) Halfway down the street, a cul-de-sac on the left leads you into the middle of a residential estate where there is a cork oak (one of the few of its kind north of the Loire).
Exit the cul-de-sac and continue along Rue de l’Arsenal. At the end, turn right onto Rue des Résistants Internés, then left onto Rue des Marais.
At the roundabout, turn left onto Rue de Monthéard and you’ll reach Avenue Bollée. Keep to the left and cross this avenue to take Impasse du Tyrol opposite, which hides a village within the city: a winding alley that climbs gently for 300 metres, lined with a motley collection of houses.

(9) Turn round to return to Avenue Bollée, which you’ll take on the left. Turn left onto Rue de Gazonfier – the cyclists’ nightmare! (Le Mans’ steepest hill), which exceeds a 20 per cent gradient at its highest point.
At the top of the hill, turn into Rue du Tertre Saint-Pierre, then left onto Chemin de Malpalu to reach Rue de Malpalu (the former Sainte-Croix clinic). At the end, turn right into Rue de l’Arche, then left into Rue de la Presche.

First turn right onto Rue des Bons Enfants, then left onto Rue Maupertuis to reach Avenue Léon Bollée. First turn right then left, cross the road and continue along Rue d’Erpell. Turn left onto Rue Léo Delibes to reach Place Langevin, where the former clinic run by the Sisters of the Child Jesus once stood.
Continue along Rue Parterre, then turn right onto Rue des Ifs. Turn left onto Rue Erpell to reach Rue Chanzy.

(10) Opposite, on the other side of the street, you’ll find a blockhouse, an exceptional military structure dating from the Second World War and unearthed from the rubble of Le Mans’ former administrative district.
Walk up Rue Chanzy on the right, turn left onto Rue Berthelot, then left onto Avenue François Mitterrand. Cross the road and turn right onto Boulevard René Levasseur to reach Place de la République.
Cross the square and head straight ahead, slightly to the right, onto Rue du Cornet.

When you reach Place de l’Éperon, cross it and head straight ahead onto Rue Saint-Benoit, then turn right onto Rue des 3 Sonnettes, followed by the Grande Rue (through the Old Town of Le Mans). When you reach the Cathedral, turn left and go down the steps which will take you back to the car park at the foot of the ramparts (S/E).

Public toilets on Place de la République.

(1) House of Maurice Lévesque (architect).

(2) Former ‘Neyret’ glove factory.

(3) Theatre and film costume workshop.

(4) Auction House (former oil factory).

(5) Façade decorated with a mosaic of earthenware shards.

(6) Statue of Chanzy.

(7) Mansion, formerly the army headquarters.

(8): cork oak.

(9) Impasse du Tyrol.

(10) Bunker.