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Key stage 4 (14-17)

Préparez vos visites

Find here all the resources you need to prepare your visit to the Memorial Museum with your students.

Guided visits

The educational team at the Caen Memorial Museum offers guided visits adapted to the level of your students. The children are equipped with headsets. They listen to the mediator and answer questions on the various objects and documents encountered during the visit.

Duration: 1 hour 15

Ask your students to bring their own wired headphones if they have them.

World War II

From the origins of the Second World War to its end, the first exhibition recounts and explains the first half of the 20th century.

  • 1918-1939, from one war to another: the disaster

From the catastrophic outcome of the First World War to 1939. How the idea of peace after the «war to end all wars» gradually disintegrated.

  • France in the dark years

What was daily life like for French people? In this section, a wartime newsreel presents the Battle of Britain, a country which “would never surrender”.

  • World war, Total war

In a war that becomes «total», aggressors devote all their human resources and equipment on achieving final victory.

  • D-Day and the Battle of Normandy

For the first time ever, this exhibition space deals exclusively with the Invasion of Normandy, a key episode in the liberation of Europe.

MIG-21

The Cold War

From the end of World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the second half of the 20th century is decrypted in this space.

  • Berlin at the heart of the Cold war

Divided into four zones of occupation in 1945, the city became a major issue for the Americans and the Soviets during the Cold War. Berlin has become a symbol of the Cold War, an emblem of East-West antagonism.

  • The Balance of Terror

During the Cold War, the two powers waged an unbridled arms race. A genuine Soviet Mig-21 and a French missile from the plateau d’Albion are real-life examples of the frantic nature of the arms race in general and, more particularly, of the nuclear arms race.

Guided tour

American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer

The D-Day landing beaches

How the site visits are organised:

  • The guide meets you at the Caen Mémorial museum, in your coach (which must be fitted with a microphone).
  • During the outbound trip, the guide gives an introduction which sets the D-Day landings against the general background of the Second World War. They explain why Normandy was chosen to reconquer Europe, and the stakes involved in the D-Day landings.
  • At the end of the circuit, return to the museum to drop the guide off.

Duration: 3 hours 30

Ressources

German Battery
Located in the heart of the Allied landing zone, between Omaha Beach and Gold Beach, the German battery at Longues-sur-mer is one of the batteries of the Atlantic Wall. In 1944, it comprised four casemates, each housing a 150mm gun, a fire direction post built into the cliff edge and various concrete installations used as shelters or ammunition bunkers.

American Cemetery
The Colleville-sur-Mer military cemetery is one of two American cemeteries in Normandy. Overlooking Omaha Beach, it contains 9,386 graves of American soldiers who fell during D-Day and the ensuing battle. With its impressive array of white crosses, this place of remembrance pays tribute to the sacrifice of American youth in the liberation of Europe.

Omaha Beach
Omaha is the code name for one of the five landing sectors. Closed in by a small cliff giving the defenders the upper hand, this 6 km long beach quickly became a hellish place for the GIs who landed at dawn on June 6. The loss of life was so great that the beach earned the nickname "Bloody Omaha".

German Cemetery
With 21,222 graves, the La Cambe cemetery is the largest German necropolis in Normandy. Its grey granite crosses and ground stelae give it a very austere appearance. In the center, a tumulus contains the bodies of unidentified combatants. A peace garden with over a thousand trees has been laid out nearby. Each tree represents a signatory to the petition of the Volksbund, an association for peace and against violence in the world.

American Cemetery
The Colleville-sur-Mer military cemetery is one of two American cemeteries in Normandy. Overlooking Omaha Beach, it contains 9,386 graves of American soldiers who fell during D-Day and the ensuing battle. With its impressive array of white crosses, this place of remembrance pays tribute to the sacrifice of American youth in the liberation of Europe.

Omaha Beach
Omaha is the code name for one of the five landing sectors. Closed in by a small cliff giving the defenders the upper hand, this 6 km long beach quickly became a hellish place for the GIs who landed at dawn on June 6. The loss of life was so great that the beach earned the nickname "Bloody Omaha".

Booking service

+33 (0)2 31 06 06 45
Monday to Friday, except public holidays.

Mémorial de Caen

Don't forget

  • To help your students relax and enable our teams to present the site, you are advised to arrive 1/4 hour prior to the scheduled time.
  • For safety reasons, bags are not allowed in the museum and students must leave them in the coach.
  • The students remain under the authority of the accompanying adults. They will not be able to access the visit without supervision.
  • The Caen Memorial Museum has a free coach park for 22 vehicles and a cleaning station.

They lived
the experience

Google reviews

4,6

20 710 avis

A meaningful experience - Legacy Roads

We had a great experience with Andrea as our tour guide. She is very knowledgeable and shared great insight, history, and interesting side stories of the events of D-Day. Ours was an all day tour, hitting the highlights of the American experience of this fateful day. We stopped for a nice lunch and then headed on to the rest of our tour. Andrea was able to answer our questions, share photos of the actual events, and we had meaningful conversations about the impact on history and future generations. As somber as the sights were, Andrea made it a very meaningful experience. We highly recommend Andrea and the museum tour.

What a great experience - Legacy Roads

Having a small group to tour with, is so much better than a large bus. Our guide Oliver was a native English speaker and very knowledgeable about history of the region and World War II. Because our group already had a base knowledge of World War II he quickly adapted and tailored the tour so we get the best experience. Lunch was included and delicious!

Excellent tour, excellent tour guide, must do if you only have one day in the area

This was a fantastic tour! The memorial museum was excellent, the movie of the landing very impactful. We could enter the museum whenever we wanted before the van tour so we had lots of time to look around at our own pace. The visit to Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery was great, moving, enlightening. Our guide was Mario – he was wonderful!!! Extremely knowledgeable, has a great sense of humor and excellent English, can’t recommend him enough! He gave us so much information and answered all our questions – some of us had been to the sites before and we still learned so much more from him. I highly recommend this tour if you only have one day to see the most important US sites of the WWII landings.

William R– United States

As an American wanting to see the American memorial war site as a family, we were pleased to find the tour guide 100% knowledgeable and almost every question we had. Questions were needing to be answered with lack of info prior to the tour, beginning solely based on inability to figure out where to park and meet. Anna, is by far the best tour guide this company has and I would recommend her 2 million times over as well as the driver she worked with. The wealth of knowledge she had, the patients she showed, but the ability to adapt to every individual tourist and her having the ability to professionally handle multiple tourists conversations at the same time and adapting with a New York old woman who could not stop speaking as well as young children at the age of ten, The tour guide guides had every thing that could have been asked, anticipated and ready to be taken care of at the drop of a hat. Flawless, beautiful tour along with a perfect day in Normandy. Always ask FOR ANNA!!!!