24hours de Mans

Overnight stop in le Mans on way back to Portsmouth ferry from Caen tomorrow afternoon. We dicovered plantagenet le Mans last year so thought we would stay outside the city by the 24hr circuit this time. The majority of the 24hr circuit is public roads.  Hotel Arbor is just after the 2nd chicane on the 6km long Mulsanne straight. The chicanes were put in the 1990s to reduce top speeds from 400km/h to 320km/h after a series of high speed accidents - maximum length of straight between chicanes is now 2km. The chicanes are only used during the race so we could have a wander without getting run over! Hotel is described as "cosy" with "restaurant gourmand". Room passes the "cosy" test. We wait to see if the restaurant passes the "gourmand" test.  Extra is 1/43 model of Lotus GT1 which was last of the marque to run in 1997. The museum has hugh display cabinets with a model of every car that has run at 24hours de Mans for the last 100years.