Le Mans - Main Sights

Main Sights

• Le Mans has a well-preserved old town (Cité Plantagenêt, also called Vieux Mans), where the cobbled streets and half-timbered house fronts provided setting for Gérard Depardieu in Cyrano de Bergerac (1989) and a cathedral: Cathédrale St-Julien, is dedicated to St Julian of Le Mans, who is honoured as the city's first bishop.
• There are remnants of a Roman wall in the old town and Roman baths by the river. These walls are highlighted every summer (July and August) evening in a light show that tells the history of the town.
• Arboretum de la Grand Prée
• Jardin des Plantes du Mans
• Musée de la reine Bérengère, a museum of Le Mans history located in a gothic manor house.
• Musée de Tessé, the fine arts museum of the city, displaying painting (including artworks by Philippe de Champaigne, Charles Le Brun, François Boucher, John Constable, Ingres, Théodore Géricault and Camille Corot) and archaeological collections as well as decorative arts.