Mémorial de Caen — Attraction in Caen

We had mixed feelings about our visit. The content and story of the museum is fantastic, but the design and layout of the building left us lost, confused and at time claustrophobic. The design is similar to Ikea, with an enforced path through small and sometimes maze like rooms. At times we got lost, particularly moving towards the cold war section where we had to walk down a long pathway through which we could see tanks below but no way to access them. Another part here went downstairs to a small dark room with a single (but great) fighter jet exhibit before immediately going back upstairs to continue - something which is frustrating with mobility issues, my disabled wife chose to double back at this point rather than descend while my son and I both missed that there was a second exit to this room to continue the visit and so also went back and missed half of the area. The most frustrating part for us were the two large tours which entered ahead of us. As soon as we entered the museum there were two groups of 20 people just stood blocking the walkway whilst listening to a guide on their headsets. We felt quite trapped by this before spending some time trying to ask people to move to one side so we could get through, including my wife with her wheeled walker. We then spent the first few rooms being very aware of the tour groups being just behind us and not wanting to be squeezed into such cramped spaces with a large group. There were amazing displays and artifacts on the way around, but I know that we missed some of them by either rushing near the start to get away from the groups, or simply being lost and moving to the next room too early, and the map is very unhelpful in its detail. We never found the German...

A group of four of us took a D-Day tour of the landing beaches (Omaha and Utah) and one of the U.S. cemeteries with the Caen Memorial Museum Tours. Ana was our tour guide and Leonie (sp?) was the tour bus driver. Ana was a spectacular guide - extremely knowledgeable, personable, patient, friendly and professional all at the same time. She knew many facts about the D-Day invasion tactics, names of individuals involved, casualty counts, weapons and tactics employed, etc., etc. We all greatly appreciated her expertise and it made for a very rewarding, informative tour. Our driver was Leonie (I hope I am spelling her name correctly) and she was a fabulous driver - very safe and knew how to get where we needed to go in a timely manner. She was very friendly and pleasant and we all felt safe as her passengers. I would highly recommend this tour as part of your visit to the Caen Memorial Museum. The tour was approximately five hours long so I would make sure you’re not hungry before it starts (there’s a restaurant on the second floor of the museum but we did not eat there so I cannot speak of their food) but I will say that the five hours went by very quickly. Touring the beaches, pillboxes and cemetery was a very somber experience full of reflection and gratitude to those who made the ultimate sacrifice to make the world a...

This is one of the most detailed war museums I have ever visited, on par with the Imperial War Museum in London. There are several sections: World War Two, D-Day, the Cold War, General Richter's War Bunker and two cinemas showing short films about the Battle of Normandy and the history of Europe 1900-1991. The Second World War section is enormous, with lots of small display cases and plenty of information. I would say that this museum isn't filled with many actual objects. Mostly, there are photographs, films and extracts from books and letters complemented by the information on the walls. The information is in French, with around 60% translated into English and 40% into German. The WWII area is split into smaller sections, following the war chronologically. There is a very sobering Holocaust section. Some of the footage and information should have a content warning, and could be distressing for children too. The bunker is sparse but interesting and the two films worth watching. I didn't visit the Cold War section because I'd already been wandering around the other sections...