Last night we decided that rather than heading over to Strasbourg (over 4 hours driving) so we could then cross borders to Adane/Nurburg (another 2-4 hours) just so I could do a couple of laps of the Nordshleif, was just pushing it a little, so instead we planned a new route
Reims -> Orléan -> Tours -> Chartes -> Rouen -> back

The drive to Orléan was nice. We had a stop off at a Carefour to pick up a few items we had forgotten plus some lunch, then headed on again. At one point we saw oncoming cars flashing, so I slowed down, and there, standing in wait, were two sun-glassed les flics awaiting with a laser gun. I smiled at them. On arrival we yet again found ourselves driving through a pedestrian way near the cathedral. We found a back street hotel with a car park, the D’Orléan. It’s nothing special and the rooms are set back in the 1970s (which is amusing as it’s 3 class stars were awarded back in 1971.

Orléan is quaint, but nice. We had a fair wander around, down back streets and up to the River. Most the restaurants appear to be in one street, which is where we ended up at a rather nice place doing modern French cuisine. I had a pave de bouef that was superb. It as a thick triangular slab of meat, 3 inches thick at the base, which while rare, was almost blue in the middle. Needless to say, it was fantastic. The evening was rounded off at a Cuban bar round the corner.

*** Post Script to the travel today.
We found a problem with using a sat nav around Paris. On the peripheric you often come across 2 or 3 roads running alongside each other, sharing the same junctions and swap over points. GPS is not accurate enough to differentiate between them with the result that it was too easy to take the wrong option. over all it probably only accounted for 3 or 4 changes in route and about an extra 5-10 kilometers, but it was frustrating.