Staying near Le Mans

[Mr. Magoo]

I have just returned from a week in Bordeaux and we spent 2 days in Sarthe. My father in Law took us to a Gite Restaurant called ‘Le Carrefour’ (not a supermarket) and it was very reasonable and the food was excellent. The family who run it do not have any Car club (Le Mans) custom at all which I thought was odd as they are only 10 minutes drive from the track. However they are a traditional French Gite that provides lunch and dinner to the local French community. They have little in the way of marketing and PR (only a poor French website http://gite.le.carrefour.free.fr/index.html ) and therefore no one but the locals really know of it. I doubt it would show up on google or any French Gite sites let alone English ones.

The reason my father in law took me is because it would clearly have appeal to a car club Le Mans visit (I plan to go to the LMC with a small group). There are 8 Bedrooms and beds for up to 30. There is a communal kitchen and BBQ area or you can dine from the restaurant which does very good traditional French fare. We had a fabulous and very reasonable Buffet there, the restaurant was busy for a Thursday lunchtime with nothing but locals which is a good sign. Three of us ate 3 courses with wine for a little under 70 Euro in total.

Other plusses are that it is easy to find yet discretely tucked away, it also has plenty of parking. A room for the night is 80 Euro so it won’t break the bank.

If I’m honest I am only throwing this out there as I thought it might be useful as I know reasonable accommodation near the circuit can be very hard to come by.

If it does interest you then please go ahead and book, you may need a french speaker though and please pass on the referral of Jean Claude Rousseau and let me know if you do book something.

All the best