Having stayed in Novotels when driving through France on several occassions we have found a great alternative, Citea apartments www.citea.com.
We stayed in Orleans on our return to UK on Saturday and were very impressed. The rates are reasonable (115 Euros family of 4 inc. breakfast) and the apartments are spacious. Basically you get a large sitting room with sofa bed for the DC and separate bedroom for parents. We preferred this to Novotel where space is tight when the beds are down.
There is no restaurant for evening meals but the tram stops outside the apartment and is only 2 stops to the city centre. We felt like we had made something of the day by visiting Orleans. When staying at the Novotel we just waited around for dinner then went to bed!
On our outbound journey we push to boat out a bit and stay in a lovely B&B in Loire called La Gaucherie but that comes to around 250 Euros with evening meal so can be costly to do both ways.