Driving to Bordeaux, where to stopover, Le Mans or Orleans?

[shabadab]

We are due to drive from calais to bordeaux campsite in august with 2 kids, 8 and 11.
Planning to break up the journey by stopping in either Le Mans or Orleans for 1 or 2 nights and staying in a hotel as kids quite enjoy the whole hotel breakfast thing and seeing the sites as it will be different to the rural campsite.

Both towns seem about half-way in terms of driving time to bordeaux but have different routes according to google maps.

Does anyone have views on which town is nicer or has more to see?
We will also have to stop off on the way back for a night so could do both towns in theory.

The Orleans route seems to drive almost through Paris - would it be possible to stop off and also show them some Paris sites?
I am thinking in the heat that may be too much with a fully loaded car. Not sure where we would leave it, and worried about it being broken into/vandalised.

(We have a Crit'air sticker.)

Any ideas welcome, even alternative stop offs

How far you driving from in England? We have always done it one go, leave here early at 4/430am, shuttle at 530, get there early evening depending on traffic. We are always fully loaded and our bikes are on a rack on the back so can't get into the boot easily.

The route through Le Mans is a better route and I wouldn't stop in Paris as it's still a schlep to Bordeaux.

We will have a 2 hour drive to Folkestone eurotunnel.

Am I right I'm assuming everyone who drives south from Calais gets the eurotunnel rather than ferry which takes 1.5 hours plus long checkin compared to 35 min crossing on eurotunnel with quick checkin?

Avoid Paris, i d go via Le Mans but stop down near Tours, imho nicer than either Orleans or Le Mans.

Never had any issues with crime & loaded car, we go every year to France but get a hotel with secure parking.

We go via Le Mans and stop In tours. Be prepared for traffic to be a lot slower south of tours.

I love that part of France (well all France to be fair!)

And yes we get Euro tunnel

Going via Paris would be utter madness. We usually stop in one of the smaller Loire towns around Tours. Can recommend Saumur, Chinon, Loches.

We have gone tunnel and ferry before - we live very close to Newhaven so the Dieppe crossing is really convenient for us and not much in it timewise.

Have you booked the crossing yet and where are you starting? We came down from Edinburgh and took the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry which was really good. 4 hour crossing but slightly shorter drive the other end and further west than Paris. We stayed in Dieppe in a basic motel on the way down right after getting off the ferry and on the way back we stayed in a nicer hotel the seafront and had a lovely meal and a look at the huge Saturday market before the ferry. We were staying close to the Spanish border which we did in one go then back up to Bordeaux for a few days and another drive straight up to Dieppe.

Orleans is almost completely shut in August, it is very dominated by the university. Avoid Paris.

Le Mans is a lovely city but it is quite a long drive in from the motorway to the centre, a lot of not very attractive suburbs. I would look at stopping somewhere just off the motorway , depending on how far you want to go after the crossing. Tours would be quite a stretch, when we lived there we stopped overnight just past Rouen .
Do be sure to book accommodation , because August is when the French take their holidays and the Loire and South west are their favourite places.

Avoid Paris, if nothing else because the tolls are hideous.

We've stayed in Amboise overnight on the same journey. In the Loire so the back of the journey broken, and a nice place to eat.

I'd say Tours direction too. We've done Calais to just beyond Tours in one go. We stayed at Parc de Fierbois.
Then you could stop off for a day at Futuroscope en route.

Whereabouts are you going? There are a lot of problems with campsites round here at the moment...

St emillion
What are the problems with campsites please?

Brilliant advice thank you

Thank you!

Thank you I'll look into this.
We haven't booked crossings yet

We’ve stayed in the Novotel in Le Mans a few times en route. It’s pleasant as there’s a nice garden and pool and you can get a spacious family room for a decent price .
We’ve also used Kyriad in Orleans. Both were easy finds from the motorway.

We always did a pit stop in Le Mans. Formula 1. Very cheap and cheerful.

We’ve driven to Bordeaux a couple of times and stopped in the Loire. As others have said avoid Paris, go via Rouen

I did newhaven to Dieppe recently, it took 2.5 hours to get through passport control! We were on the boat for over 8 hours in total as we were one of the first on then last off. Half the boat was closed, not enough places to sit, most of the toilet cubicles were closed, it was awful.

We once stayed in a cheap motel just outside Orleans. It was an interesting night to say the least; it seemed to be doubling as a brothel. I'll ask DH which one it was. He'll have the record on Booking.com.

We have stayed in a great Campsite in Le Man's.
www.chateau-de-chanteloup.com/

It has a great restaurant and lively bar on site and a pool. We really enjoyed spending a couple of days there .

I’ve done Novotel at Both - and Tours - I loved Tours (it had a Zara and cat cafe so did was in heaven) didn’t stay in Novotel in Tours but Westhotel which was posh! But I love a Novotel!

DD not did!