Guinguette des Tanneries

Located in the Jardin des Tanneries, on quai Louis-Blanc at the foot of the Gallo-Roman ramparts of the Cité Plantagenêt, the Guinguette des Tanneries offers one of the finest views of the Sarthe in the heart of Le Mans. The venue serves simple, friendly food (grills, boards, local products, ice cream) in a family atmosphere, with a capacity of about 350 people.

Open from mid-April to September, the guinguette is a 2026 partner of the Le Mans tourist office and hosts evening concerts through the summer. Several summer concert dates (pop-rock, covers) are announced for July 2026. Table reservations by text message only.

A bit of history

La Guinguette des Tanneries sets up each season in the Jardin des Tanneries, at the foot of the Cité Plantagenêt ramparts, on a site steeped in history. The Tanneries neighborhood, which gave the venue its name, was a working-class, unsanitary suburb where leather was prepared. It inspired many Le Mans painters from the mid-19th century, before being demolished starting in 1869 for sanitary reasons. A railway bridge shaped like an X, which crossed the Sarthe to serve the neighborhood, was later blown up in 1944; only one pillar remains, still visible on the site.

The guinguette itself is a lightweight structure, reassembled each year on the banks of the Sarthe, on quai Louis Blanc. Traces of its activity (programming, blog) go back to at least 2012. In 2014, Pierre Boussard and Claudie Lecomte took over its management and revived the venue's popular spirit with dance nights (salsa, zumba, tango, rock), acoustic concerts and boat rides departing from the quai des Tanneries.

Since then, several teams have succeeded one another to keep this unpretentious guinguette going, open from spring to early autumn. For the 2026 season, Emmanuel and Frédéric Minaud are taking the reins, with a stated aim of offering something simple, good and authentic, in keeping with this popular meeting place on the banks of the Sarthe.