Memorial des Civils dans La Guerre — Attraction in Caen

Outstanding museum that tells of the occupation experience of the French people and more. As part of your visit a theatre experience tries (and partially succeeds) to give you the experience of being under a bombing raid. Harrowing. The museum is over 3 floors and us wheelchair accessible across all exhibits. It combines personal experiences (videos), artefacts and models that talk about the resistance. Vichy France, deportation and surprisingly to me, the number of civilians killed by bombing raids across the nations involved in WW2. It even describes the campaign of allied bombing that took place before DDay to try to disrupt the ability to move German reinforcements to Normandy but which took a horrifying toll on civilians in the towns. If I ruled the world, I'd make sure every teenager with political ambitions visited here. Exhibits are displayed in French, German and English and there is a audio guide to supplement the displays, although you can probably get by without it. A really well put together...

A truly fascinating and educational afternoon. We've all heard the history of World War 2 and the allied "comeback" of the Normandy invasion. As epic and harrowing a tale as that is, this museum sets out to tell the story from a different perspective. You start out at the top floor and are quickly immersed in what life was like living and surviving in occupied France and the Vichy regime. I learned a lot that I did not know, as almost all museums and memorials focus on the war from the military perspective.

We spent a good three hours here, though I suspect most people might spend a little less. I would thoroughly recommend visiting the museum, I enjoyed...

A great museum packed full of information and personal memories. Very well set out. Visited in the morning and then went for lunch whilst the museum closed for an hour. Returned to finish off seeing all during the afternoon. So much information on life in both occupied France and Vichy France that the lunch break worked well for us to have a breather and then refocus. The bombing experience at the end very good and definitely made us think more too when set into the context of civilian deaths across the whole of WW2. Very friendly and knowledgeable staff who were on hand to guide and explain. Definitely worth a...