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Driving between Calais and Tours this weekend and the obvious route is to go round Le Mans. Problem is that the 24hr race is on at the same time!!!
We'll be getting to Le Mans mid afternoon during the middle of the race and will go round the city on the autoroute. Still concerned about congestion.
Strange question to ask on here i know but does anyone have any thoughts on whether we should give Le Mans a miss. Can anyone advise on an alternative route?
Thanks
I went to Le Mans for the race and would advise non-race goers to avoid it. Also be aware that every local policeman sees the Le Man weekend as a cash bonanza and will stop any car with British plates for anything they can think of.
Blimey, that bad huh? I'd sort of figured that if we stayed on the autoroute and missed the town itself we'd be alright, but i guess not...
We go to the race itself most years (although not this year unfortunately) and WCA is right. Watch your speed all the way from Calais as the french police have a field day that weekend. As for Le Mans itself the racing takes in one of the main national route roads (N138) and with the anticipated 250000+ spectators this makes for heavily conjested roads around Le Mans.
When I was driving back I was overtaken by 8 cars along one stretch of road (and I wasn't hanging about). All 8 were talking to the police as I passed them at various points towards the ferry. Lots of police impounded radar detectors as the are illegal but also a surprising number of TomTom sat navs.
They explained to the drivers that they did not know what a SatNav was and it could be a radar detector. Apparently they could return to France the following week to appeal against the removal if they wished to. One bloke event had the case and mounting gear for his sat nav taken.
I remember once seeing a police radar set up not far from calais. One french copper operating the speed gun and another sitting in their "pursuit" car ready to go. A breand new Porsche 911 Turbo of all things! No speeding Brit was going to out run that now were they?
As i say they take this weekend mightly seriously!
Stay on the Toll Road through (A38?) and you'll be ok.
Yeah, thats what we were thinking of doing. I guess i'd also thought that if we were going through at midday Saturday the race would be in full swing and everyone would be watching cars driving round in circles instead of clogging up the roads! 😉
Race doesn't start until 3pm. Although, the roads will be closed as there'll be morning practice and the support race - I think it's the legends this year.