Open today from 9h00 to 19h00 Visit today
The museum About the museum
Jean-Marie Girault (1926-2016) was the Museum’s founder.
On June 6, 1944, a young Red Cross volunteer was searching through
the ruins of Caen to rescue the wounded buried under the rubble. In the 1980s, Jean-Marie Girault, now a senator and mayor of the city, was the driving force behind the Caen Memorial Museum. In 1981, he founded, along with others, the Association des Amis du Musée Mémorial, which began the important work of assembling memories and laying
the foundations for the future museum. Building work began in 1986, under the direction of Caen architect Jacques Millet, and the Memorial was opened on June 6, 1988, by President François Mitterrand. On its white Caen-stone façade, etched by the scars of wars, are lines by local poet Paul Dorey : La douleur m’a brisée, la fraternité m’a relevée, de ma blessure a jailli un fl euve de liberté (“Pain broke me, fraternity
relieved me, from my wound sprang a river of freedom”).
Status: SAEML (local public-private company)
Majority shareholder: City of Caen (51.6%)
Capital: €1,233,027
Chairman: Aristide Olivier, mayor of Caen
Chief Executive Officer: Kléber Arhoul
Number of employees (all sites): between 90 and 100 in a normal year
Museum surface area: 14,000 m² on 3 levels, including 5,600 m² of permanent exhibitions
SIREN 348 713 694 | VAT FR 71348713694 | APE 9102Z
avis
Visited the awesome museum the first day and then the second day, I signed up to take the Omaha/Utah full day tour.
I loved it! The van was comfortable, the driver polite and skilled and my guide, Andrea was an absolute delight! She made all of the sites come alive with stories of the people who lived the actual events. There was a wealth of information and I feel that I got to see so much. Everything I wanted to see!
The lunch was also very tasty. Timing on all the stops was good, pace was excellent.
I looked all over for a tour and was baffled because there are a ton of options. This one had a great price for a full day tour and I figure who better to show me this than affiliates of the museum.
Five stars, epic day!
Alexandra was awesome. She was incredibly knowledgeable and answered all our questions. She shared insights and stories we had not heard before. We highly recommend booking a tour of Caen with Legacy-Roads Guided Tours
Oliver did a outstanding job. An unplanned incident where a little girl ran up to us in the middle of the beach, asked if I was a veteran and presented me with a veterans medal, left all of us in tears. Later, Oliver asked if I could be part of the Taps lowering of the flag, the request was granted on this Memorial Day. It was a very special day for this US Army veteran. I’m glad I followed my American Legion Commander’s advice and wore my Legion hat. The beach and cemetery tour was sobering, reflective and meaningful. Thank you.
I had a wonderful D-Day tour with Andrea and Allan. They were friendly, knowledgeable, prompt and accommodating. Great full day tour of all the main D-Day sites. And the Memorial the next day was really good as well.
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!
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.
Mémorial de Caen
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