Historial Jeanne d’Arc — Attraction in Rouen

We luckily arrived right before a session was starting so didn’t have to wait before beginning. The concept is a multimedia presentation that takes place over several rooms that a large tour group moves through. Every session is the same, presented over loud speakers with projected visuals that were quite cool. If you want a translated audio, it is included in the price of your ticket. The headphones don’t actually sit in your ears and sometimes it was quite hard to tune out the French (especially if you mostly understand that too) to hear the translation. It was a bit of a sensory overload. In at least one quarter of the rooms there is not enough seating for the whole group, so if you have accessibility needs be sure to speak up to get a seat. It is largely wheelchair accessible although the main group takes lots of winding stairs. The story is told through actor portrayals of Joan’s contemporaries and is quite engaging. We did learn a lot, but still had some unanswered questions at the end (why was she called Joan of Arc?). Overall I think this is worth a visit if you want a different museum experience, you have kids, or you know very little about Joan of Arc. I would have been happier to pay slightly less for...

I wish I could give this more than three stars - the museum is unlike anything else I've experienced. You travel from room to room watching and listening to the trial of Joan of Arc who was burned at the stake in Rouen - it was an interesting premise but the execution was a little lacking.

Naturally, all the audio is in French but they provide audio guides for numerous other languages. Initially it was strange having to listen to the English audio through headphones and block out the French commentary at the same time. The audio guides are automatic so that when you enter a certain room it begins playing the associated tracks.

For the first 3 rooms this worked perfectly, however in the 4th room the audio guide stopped working. This seemed to be the case for everyone else in my group. Therefore, for 10 to 15 minutes I stood there without a clue as to what was being said.

At the end of the tour I returned my guide to the desk and highlighted the issue. Hopefully it was just a one off as otherwise this would have definitely been a 'must...

A messy, repetitive, ill-prepared and just plain boring way to tell the story of a legendary historical figure.

The entire museum is done through a slow audio-visual tour that blasts the entire room in french. All the while you are bombarded by the translator-headphones that chatter in 5 different languages all throughout the room. It's an overstimulating mess.

Because of this tour, no one can take their own route or go at their own pace. Some will be bored, and those who crave for details can't read more.

To make matters worse, it's all framed through the eyes of inconsequential characters that have all heard about or met Jean once or twice... this leads to 90 minutes of listening to fake old men talking about some thing they heard about 20 years prior.

finally, and this might not be important to some, but they also leave out all the action and tension out of the story, in a museum about someone whose life was filled with both.

abhorrent museum. please...