After an early breakfast we set off at 9am south towards Le Mans, about 2 hours drive. At Le Mans we visited the circuit of famous 24 hours race. We had a look around and paid to walk around inside the circuit and the stands. The Dunlop bridge was great and we walked over it and into the stands on the main starting grid. Mileage to Le Mans from home was 380 miles.

We filled up with petrol at Le Mans and then set off on our longest section of driving for the holiday from Le Mans to Bordeaux. We stuck to the toll motorways, which were very quiet and easy driving, until Poitiers and then tried a non-toll motorway for the last 200kms or so, which was also very easy driving and quiet and more scenic/interesting. We stopped for breaks at Aires, which were a good mix of commercial ones and very quiet ones with small cafes. Becks and Daniel’s favourite Aire consisted of a little shack set up in a forest selling ice creams and coffee. Daniel had a passion/mango/coconut ice cream and Becks had a Durulo ice lolly – neither of which they can get in England.

We saw lots of sunflower fields, hay bales (hay babies), corn fields, passed near Camembert, Cognac, Chavigny and as we approached Bordeaux lots of vine yards. Also passed the Loire river and saw huge plane engines being transported on lorries from the UK (Rolls Royce?) heading towards Toulouse.

The driving so far was traffic free, until a few miles from our hotel in Bordeaux when we got in a 30 minute traffic jam! We got to the hotel at 8pm and had dinner in the hotel.

Mileage to the Hotel from home was 637miles.