Wednesday, April 21st

Today we visited the city of Le Mans. Most people know Le Mans because of the 24 Hour Auto Race there. However, it also contains some of the oldest Roman remains in France. Le Mans is an hour drive from Nogent, and has a population of about 200,000.

As usual, the American students meet at 8:00 AM. We arrive at Le Mans shortly after 9:00, and take a two-hour walking tour of the old city, also called Cité Plantagenêt. The very oldest part of city dates back over two thousand years to Roman times. In fact, some of the original Roman walls can still be seen with it's distinctive pattern of red brick and stone. The construction of the Cathédrale St-Julien du Mans started in 1080 and was completed around 1254. The cathedral was originally intended to be even lager than it is, but never achieved that goal because of construction costs. Seems like cost over run was a problem even back then. In one corner outside the cathedral is an artifact called the menhir of Le Mans. This piece of sedimentary rock reportedly dates back seven thousand years to prehistoric times in the Le Mans area. Legend has it that if you insert your finger into a mall depression on the rock, your wishes will come true. Several students tried it, but I have no idea of their wishes, nor do I want to know. :-)

Cobbled streets and "half timbered" buildings characterize the old city. Half timbering is a construction method now referred to as Tudor style construction. The building is constructed using timber framing and then plaster or bricks are used to fill in the wall spaces between the timbers. This style of construction also employed the use of jetties. Jetties are when the upper floors of the building are cantilevered over the lower floors, thus allowing the second and third floors to actually have more square footage than the ground floor.

After touring the old city, everybody dispersed to eat and get some last minute shopping in. The modern part of Le Mans is full of wonderful places to eat and shop, all located around a center plaza. My hosts, Jean and Catherine say that Le Mans is their favorite place to shop and see concerts.

An hour bus ride and we are back in Nogent by 4:00 PM. We remind the students to get their packing done this evening. We are to meet the bus at 5:30 tomorrow morning for the two ride to the airport, and we don't want anyone oversleeping! Final checks on our flight show it as being still scheduled.

We'll be home soon.....