"Rate the Caen Memorial Museum" Topic

On a scale of 1 (poor) to 10 (excellent), how would you rate this museum based on your experiences?

normandy.memorial-caen.com

Overall a 5. The bookshop is very good and usually has a stock of the excellent Histoire books.

Agreed, 5.

Never been, so pointless to provide a rating.

Never been there

I'd give it a 5 as well. The staff were all two or three language speakers and could direct me to things that were not part of the museum proper. Very informative.

Do you give it a 5 because the subjects on display are "meh" or is it good but overpriced for what it shows. Didn't visit it when I was in Normandy because of the ticket pricd.

A personal view, is that I wanted to see more objects within the space available. It was beautifully spaced out, with lots of explanation posters and nice avenues.

I would like them to cram in more "stuff". This is because i like to see "stuff" for real, rather than big posters explaining what stuff is.

There are other museums on that area.
The Bayeux museum has lots of stuff. I find this more interesting.
The August 1944 Falaise museum (now gone) was full of stuff.
The Hells corner museum also has a good stuff to space ratio. Also has a fine uniform/kit shop if you want to get all dressed up!

The best museum for stuff is the top floor of the British science museum wherein the display of aircraft is wonderful and never very busy because you have to climb stairs etc. To balance that, the Washington air and Space Smithsonian is excellent (although I cannot find the ME262 any more)

A personal view, is that I wanted to see more objects within the space available. It was beautifully spaced out, with lots of explanation posters and nice avenues.

I would like them to cram in more "stuff". This is because i like to see "stuff" for real, rather than big posters explaining what stuff is.

There are other museums on that area.
The Bayeux museum has lots of stuff. I find this more interesting.
The August 1944 Falaise museum (now gone) was full of stuff.
The Hells corner museum also has a good stuff to space ratio. Also has a fine uniform/kit shop if you want to get all dressed up!

The best museum for stuff is the top floor of the British science museum wherein the display of aircraft is wonderful and never very busy because you have to climb stairs etc. To balance that, the Washington air and Space Smithsonian is excellent (although I cannot find the ME262 any more)

Posted this second time as my other posts got canned.

My wife and I visited there in 2000. I found it odd that in the introductory video they seemed to credit Montgomery with winning the war!

Other than that I don't remember it well enough to give it a rating.

We visited the museum a decade ago. Very informative displays and text. They did not softsoap French collaboration nor German atrocities. However, I am still astonished, that nowhere in the museum, was mention made of the fact that the United States (and its Allies) were fighting a second war with the Japanese Empire.

I have been several times, and found it a very mixed bag. A '5' at most, and maybe more a '4'. It is a quintessentially EU project, intended (like Péronne FWW museum) to sprinkle war blame broadly and remind us that we should all just get along. Military/historical details are deliberately thin, and most interpretations (cause, effect, responsibility, significance, etc.) are mediocre to poor. The accuracy of its military content is, at best, consistently suspect and, too often, outrageously bad.

Its architectural features are OK, with its descent-to-madness themed entrance, outside contemplative spaces, and open-form research centre, but its displays tend towards thin, episodic, and poorly presented. Some things, however, were well done, including the depiction of the impact of Allied bombing on French cities including Caen. (More French civilians died from Allied bombing in the Normandy summer than did Allied military personnel as a result of enemy action, an extraordinary – and mostly unknown – statistic.)

Overall, it provides broader coverage than any other museum in the region, but many of those others out-shine it in their own areas of specialization: e.g., P-d-H for the Americans, the Juno Beach Centre for the Canadians, Arromanches for the great Mulberry project, Adegem for the Scheldt campaign, and so forth. [I did not realize Bayeux was still open, as per Martin Goddard's comment above, as I'd always liked its cramped, encyclopedic style very much as a sort of throw-back to military museums of the past. Its historical content was deeply suspect, but it was far better if understood as open display, with tons of stuff lying about for visual enjoyment.]

The price aside, it is well worth a visit, but buff up your day in town by taking in the Norman castle too. The rebuilt city centre is quite lovely and there are a few excellent boutique hotels.

I've been there, Is give it an 8. Is this the one with the Typhoon hanging from the ceiling once you get in?

Yes it is.

We have an object on loan there. But I have never been there.

Interested to read Fred Mills' comment on the Juno Beach Centre, as I'd heard poor reviews of it that mirrored those about the Caen Peace Museum (relatively few artifacts, lack of focus on the Normandy campaign, and information that can easily be found elsewhere).

Fred, have you been to the Maisy Battery site? It looks pretty cool.