12 Sights in Le Mans, France (with Map and Images)

The Vignolles Hotel is located in Vieux-Mans, place Saint-Pierre. It was built in 1549 by Jean de Vignolles. The hotel was never finished. Its architecture is in the local Gothic style. Because of its transition structure, its circulation axis is firmly vertical. The hotel is located in a special location in the city, bringing a revival to the traditional parties in the 15th century. However, the hotel features aristocratic buildings in Upper Maine. However, it proves that there are similarities in the roots of aristocratic houses in rural and urban areas. By definition, its structure is not luxurious; Compared with other hotels mainly built on high places, its distribution on the ground is immortal. Its unique architecture puts it between Paris architecture and Ligle architecture, just like the location of the city and its natural attraction on the map of France. There is no doubt that Vignols pays special attention to the impact on visitors. First of all, he wants to bring more Parisianism to Le Mans with his exterior buildings. Then he considered the visitor's attitude. The aim, of course, was to impress regional Protestants, especially Somur Protestants, to flatter and dominate all the best Protestants. The Vignolles Hotel was a classic example of a classic national hotel built in Paris and elsewhere in France until the mid-17th century. The hotel has been owned by the city of Le Mans since 1926 and was partially listed as a historic monument in 1946. Restoration continues to this day, with the hotel splitting in two in 1799, profoundly affecting its original beauty and even disfiguring it.

Wikipedia: Hôtel de Vignolles (FR)

The Palais du Grabatoire is the current episcopal residence of the Bishop of Le Mans. It is an old canonical palace built in the first half of the sixteenth century for Jean de Couthardy. The palace is located in the district of the Cité Plantagenêt, the historic heart of Le Mans. The building faces the west door of St. Julian's Cathedral, Place du Cardinal Grente. Its name has commonly been reduced to Grabatoire or the Hotel du Grabatoire. Its surface is of an unusual size. Very few documents, books or magazines have traced the history of the building. It is one of the most unknown monuments in the city. The Grabatoire has been listed as a historical monument since 1927.

Wikipedia: Palais du Grabatoire (FR)

The Parc de la préfecture is a French public garden located in the city of Le Mans. It is located just behind the prefecture of Sarthe. This park is private, not usually accessible and reserved for the prefecture. However, it is open to the public during Heritage Days. The park is exactly 22,630 m² and is included in the former ensemble of the Abbaye de la Couture, including the monastic buildings, the abbey church and the enclosure. It is particularly known for having been a place of inspiration for the poem Mardoche by Alfred de Musset, then visiting Le Mans.

Wikipedia: Parc de la Préfecture (Le Mans) (FR)

The collegiate church of Saint-Pierre-la-Cour is a former collegiate church located in the city of Le Mans. This is the former church dedicated to the Counts of Maine whose palace was adjacent. Located southwest of the old town, the collegiate church is now used for various cultural events. It is considered one of the five municipal museums. The house of the municipal school of drawing is the subject of a classification as historical monuments by the list of 1862 and finally the collegiate church of Saint-Pierre-la-Cour is classified in 1889.

Wikipedia: Collégiale Saint-Pierre-la-Cour (FR)

The Wright brothers, Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright, were American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful motor-operated airplane. They made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft with the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, at what is now known as Kill Devil Hills. The brothers were also the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible.

Wikipedia: Wright brothers (EN)

The Museum of Archaeology and History of Maine, or officially Jean-Claude-Boulard Carré Plantagenet Museum, is a museum located in the city of Le Mans, in the Saint-Nicolas district, near the central sector. Completely restored and refurbished by architect Bernard Althabegoity, it was officially inaugurated on June 19, 2009 and was opened to the public the following day.

Wikipedia: Musée d'archéologie et d'histoire du Mans (FR), Website

The Gallo-Roman enclosure of Le Mans, also called the Roman enclosure of Le Mans, in the city formerly called Vindinum or Vindunum, capital of the Gallic people of the Aulerques Cénomans, was built in the Lower Roman Empire, at a date long estimated towards the end of the third century but whose most recent studies now opt for the beginning of the fourth century.

Wikipedia: Enceinte romaine du Mans (FR)

Le Mans Cathedral is a Catholic church situated in Le Mans, France. The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Julian of Le Mans, the city's first bishop, who established Christianity in the area around the beginning of the 4th century. Its construction dated from the 6th through the 14th century, and it features many French Gothic elements.

Wikipedia: Le Mans Cathedral (EN)

The Musée des 24 Heures du Mans, created in 1961 under the name "Musée automobile de la Sarthe", then renamed "Musée des 24 Heures - Circuit de la Sarthe" in 2009, is a French museum dedicated to motor racing located near the main entrance of the 24 Hours circuit in Le Mans.

Wikipedia: Musée automobile de la Sarthe (FR)

Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was a Free-French general during the Second World War. He became Marshal of France posthumously in 1952, and is known in France simply as le maréchal Leclerc or just Leclerc.

Wikipedia: Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque (EN)

Tess Museum is an art museum in Le Mans, France. It offers many guided tours on a variety of subjects and is located on the edge of the natural environment of the Jacobins quinconces des Jacobins and Tess é parks.

Wikipedia: Musée de Tessé (FR), Website

Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet d'Estournelles de Constant, Baron de Constant de Rebecque, was a French diplomat and politician, advocate of international arbitration and winner of the 1909 Nobel Prize for Peace.

Wikipedia: Paul Henri Balluet d'Estournelles de Constant (EN)