A report and a nice lot of pictures from one of Matt Flegal's European Tour highlights: Le Musée des Blindés, Saumur.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

What is this?

It's an ELC 30.

Nice photos, can't believe they charged five Euros so you could take photos though.

Nice catch!

Chris in fairness I think 13 Euros all in is a fair price.

Yes, I'd agree about the price. For what's in and around the museum, and given the cost of maintaining the place and its contents, very fair indeed.

I only wish there was a sign near the entrance warning about the 5 Euro charge for photos!

Regards

Rob

I'm so jealous!

Yeah ,no kidding.

I agree as well. But the fact they actually charge you for it is just something else.

Rob, did you or someone you know end up getting yelled at by an angry Frenchmen?

I spent two days there last fall, what an amazing place

Steve

They used to be quite "diificult" about people posting pictures of the museum on the web, but Matt Flegal probably asked for permission?

Cheers,

Christophe

Yup, at the desk.

Thank you Matt for sharing with us, great reference material.

I've GOT to get over there! IMHO, French tanks and their camouflage look better than that of the Panzertruppe of the period. Matt, thank you - excellent photographs!

It really is a fantastic museum. Keeping in mind that the train or my wife and I was pretty expensive I would absolutely go again in a heartbeat. Their WW2 German and post WW2 collection rivals Bovington and the French tanks themselves are quite impressive and show a real design style. Put in just how nice the museum itself is and all involved with it should be enormously proud of the museum.

Great museum and Saumur is very nice. We stayed overnight, ok hotel across from the train station. The folks at the museum are friendly and helpful. They even charged my camera battery. If you go France to celebrate anything connected with the 70th anniversary of WW II events, put this on your list.

Rob, did you or someone you know end up getting yelled at by an angry Frenchmen?

Yes, it was me, and I just let him rave on to the end before asking him to repeat it, but this time in English, which he did.

Regards

Rob

Concerning the fee for taking pictures, you visitors must be aware that if the vehicles and the buildings are state-owned, the museum is run by an association without a state contribution. The association has a large number of volunteers (who maintain the vehicles in working condition for instance) but also some permanent staff to pay (secretary, shop keepers, cashiers ...).
Asking 5 euros for allowing you to take as many pictures as you want is not that high and it helps preserving the collection.

Christophe, the museum staff do not forbid you to post pics of their collection. They just don't want you to take pictures for a commercial purpose without a compensation. This could be either financial or a quantity of final products they can sell in the shop.

Olivier who is not part of the museum staff

Olivier I cannot help thinking just charging €13 for everyone to enter would solve all of the issues.

Darren,
you're certainly right but in these days 13€ are a sum when people become greedy The staff surely will end by raising the entrance fee sooner or later. I have to check but I think that there is a kind of common fee for the both museums in Saumur, the tank museum and the cavalry museum which is less known but is worth a visit.

Olivier

I visited this museum during a family holiday to the Loire valley, smashing place, the 'German' room is fantastic to see for those with a dunkelgelb persuasion! Considering the money I spent for the whole holiday the admission was a very small part of the total, however the day was, for me, a big part of my holiday.

Thanks for sharing this, I have often thought of visiting the Musee des Blindes, but it has not worked out. Thinking that Bovington might be the better option if there's only time for one of the two???

Olivier if people are thinking €13 is expensive Europe is in a worse state than I thought. looking at this from a value for money aspect (I believe we both agree)€13 for a days or even half a days occupation is great value for money. My only concern ref a separate fee for taking pictures is that not everyone will understand and it may end up with causing offence to either party when being shouted at/told off in French.

For what it's worth, the nice kid at the desk pointed it out to me in English before he took our admission money. It would be pretty difficult to take picture without knowing you should have paid for it. That said, the staffing (admittedly on a Sunday) was only two people, so I have no idea how they police it.

To an earlier question about this versus Bovington? it depends. If the point of the visit is to see a lot of beautiful tanks or British stuff, go to Bovington. It's a bit fancier, has a larger displayed collection, is noticeably brighter lit, and has a cafe and snack bar (and is a lot cheaper to travel to from it's respective capital city). If you're interested in French stuff or less common German WW2 stuff, go to Saumur. Bovington has a more extensive collection of German stuff from what I can find but it seems an awful lot of it is in the mostly off limits vehicle conservation center. On the museum floor Saumur has a bit more and they have the German conversion of french AFV's locked down. For post-WW2 stuff I think it's a wash, both have extensive collections although I might give Saumur a slight edge based on what they have on common display.

I guess I'd give Bovington an edge but it's not nearly as cut and dried as I'd have thought before visiting Saumur. The one qualifier is if I could get to Bovington on the few days when the conservation center is fully open I'd go for that; it looks to almost double the number of vehicles you could see.

One other thing to add for both of these; as far in advance contact the museum staff via e-mail about your visit and if there is anything you might want to see in particular. Both of the museums were really helpful and accommodating. I learned that years ago with the now sadly minimalized Patton museum where a simple request led to a volunteer there taking me through all the restoration sheds and to every tank on the post. Heck, the National Maritime Museum staff was taking models out of storage so I could see them! Museum staff are awesome if you politely ask for assistance in advance.

Bill, Saumur collection is by far larger.

Matt, as you noticed the staff is not large in the museum and I don't think they really try to spot who has paid or not for taking pictures. I guess it's a question of confidence from the staff and honesty from the visitors.

Olivier