Caen Memorial Museum

I%26#39;d like to hear some feedback regarding the Caen Memorial Museum. I%26#39;ve read good reviews. But the gentleman at the Inn I am staying at has tried to discourage me saying there is more information in the Normandy Museum and in the areas of the D Day beaches. Opinions please...

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Hi travel,

While I have heard good stuff about the Caen war museum too, I have never stopped there. Dont especially care for the city and it was mostly destroyed during the war. The whole Normandy coast is filled with museums and the actual sites of the D Day landings and the many small towns liberated. There are a couple of routes marked out to follow if you are driving. You can get booklets and read about what happened as you proceed. It is a very interesting adventure and I would suggest it to anyone. You might want to get the old movie %26quot;The Longest Day%26quot;....found it to be quite factual. It is amazing to see the beaches and remember what happened and how many young men died taking them.

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I%26#39;ve never been there. My time was spent along the American Beaches. There are any number of museums in the area and they all have a unique spin. I especially the museum with the objects recovered from the sea. There are a couple of Double Drive tanks from the 741st Tank Battalion there.

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I went to the Caen museum about 8 years ago and found it very informative, however I would not substitute it for going to the beaches as well. The museum should take you half a day, at most, so I would definitely check it out.

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TravelBuddy, are you going to be in London any time soon? Because my suggestion would be to go to the Imperial War Museum%26#39;s holocaust exhibit instead. IWM has the best of the three (Caen, Holocaust Museum in DC included) that we%26#39;ve visited.

The museum in Caen is rather tucked in the far reaches of the city and a little hard to find. Entry is expensive. The museum is set up so that one descends down a circular walkway, while looking at historical photos and reading about world history that led up to the two world wars and holocaust. We found this part of the museum most informative and very interesting. After the initial descent, exhibits about the holocaust and subsequent world events lead finally to a %26quot;peace%26quot; exhibit.

When all was said and done, we would have preferred using our time differently, but we had also had the advantage of seeing the IWM exhibit just a week and a half before.

This next visit we%26#39;re definitely visiting the museum at Arromanches instead. I%26#39;ve heard lots of good things about it.

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Of course the beaches are THE THING. It%26#39;s like standing on %26quot;holy ground%26quot;. After all D Day is all about the Normandy beaches......

But I would agree with SweetMer26. If you are in Caen and you can afford the time, why not? I went there in 2001 and enjoyed it, and will be going back again this June. It%26#39;s not cheap, though....you can actually get a pass that allows you to enter the other museums as well.... I can%26#39;t remember if it was a day pass or 3 day pass or a 3 museum type pass though. But go and check that out.

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In 2002 I made a journey to Normandy - the beaches,

Arromanches (including it%26#39;s museum), the American

Cemetery and the WWII Museum in Caen.

The Museum in Caen was very informative and

they have an excellent bookstore. I made the journey

in one day. If you have the time I think it is well

wothwhile visiting.

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The Caen Memorial Museum is a nicely done %26#39;modern%26#39; museum. Not much to show, but what they have, is presented well. I walked it rapidly and spent most of my time in the gift shop. Photo:

…cox.net/dvd_slideshow/Caen%20Museum.jpg

Not to be missed is the much smaller museum at Arromanches. Lots of neat stuff in an older type museum. Photo:

…cox.net/dvd_slideshow/…20Museum.jpg