Parking in Le Mans on Race Sunday

[aricus654]

I am keen to try parking in Le Mans on race Sunday, see the end of the race and then take the tram away from the race track back to my car and then be away.

I am after any recommendations or helpful warning about parking.

I was wondering about parking in the car park at the Carrefour at Avenue Georges Durand, will not be open on the Sunday (I think) and is close to the tram stop Jules Raimu.

Does anyone know whether you can park in these on a Sunday or whether they have clamping like the UK for parking on private property outside the permissible 2 hours?

Or are there any better ideas?

Aricus

[Lorry]

Won't there be a bit of a queue for the tram?

[aricus654]

Lorry,

There may well be but I will not leave until after all the awards so there queue may have gone down a bit.

Last year it took more that an hour and a half to get out of Houx and I am certain that it will be very much worse because the new camp site, Les Epinettes, will exit onto the same road.

My bet is that the tram will be a much faster way out than driving out from Houx.

Aricus

[Lorry]

Good luck.  Carrefour is only 2-3 miles from Antares, so if all else fails you could walk.

Whilst I don't dare venture out on the Sunday, I recall most of the side streets there have parking.

[cja]

When we did that, the other year, we used the car park at the station.
There were plenty of spaces, don't remember it being very expensive, easy hop off the tram and not too long out of the centre.

[aricus654]

When we did that, the other year, we used the car park at the station.
There were plenty of spaces, don't remember it being very expensive, easy hop off the tram and not too long out of the centre.

Thanks - So at the main train station in the centre of Le Mans?

And how was the traffic out?

Aricus

[cja]

As I recall, the 'usual' LM traffic, which is never going to be great but certainly not as bad as leaving Après-race, from one of the car parks!

We went South down the D147, running parallel to the river, until getting onto the D338 which took us round LM and up to towards Saint Saturnin & onto the A28. A bit sticky, until you got onto the D338, then slightly less so all the way to the motorway.

I suppose you could schlep up into LM, crossing the river & going North, but we found the road was ok & used it. Think it's one of those 'play it by ear' things, though.

[Barry]

Do you really need to rush off?
A couple of times I've left about 5pm and sailed out, less traffic than a normal Monday morning, especially if you use the back road that runs alongside Bleu Nord up to Arnage village.

[aricus654]

Ah yes, I know that road.

Unfortunately we are on Houx.

Last year we were not out until well past 6:00 because of the bottleneck onto the road.  We turned south against the traffic and picked up the guide's "On the run - Escaping the traffic at the end of the race" route, which is truly excellent, once you are out of should that is!

This year Epinettes will make it worse. Houx, Houx Annex and Airtack already exit onto Chemin Aux Boeufs, so another 500 cars from Epinettes will make it far worse. Hence my thoughts for a new plan.

Aricus

[Chrisgr31]

When we did that, the other year, we used the car park at the station.
There were plenty of spaces, don't remember it being very expensive, easy hop off the tram and not too long out of the centre.

I parked in that car park a couple of years ago when we were in Beausejour and got the tram back to the car it worked well.  My wife gets the tram every year as she comes back by train whilst I drive back and the tram has yet to let her down.

[aricus654]

Thanks! I will try it out this year.

Aricus

[landman]

Do you really need to rush off?
A couple of times I've left about 5pm and sailed out, less traffic than a normal Monday morning, especially if you use the back road that runs alongside Bleu Nord up to Arnage village.

I agree with Barry.

We've wandered back to Bleu Nord on various years to see an enormous queue to get out of the place, but within a couple of hours there's no hassle.

Intention this year is to do something very similar, wait for a bit, pack up the gear then head off to Paris for a decent sh1t, shower & shave.