Musée des Blindés, Saumur, France

The Musée des Blindés is a tank museum located in Saumur and one of the world's largest tank museums. The museum has the world's largest collection of armoured fighting vehicles and contains well over 880 vehicles, although the British Bovington Tank Museum has a larger number of tanks. Less than a quarter can be exhibited due to space limitations despite the move to a much larger building in 1993.

Over 200 of the vehicles are fully functional, in the past often performing in the annual cavalry show, the Carrousel. Saumur has been the traditional training centre for cavalry and holds the current Armoured Cavalry Branch Training School. The museum has its origins in the study collection. It's still a State institution, run by the Army. There is also a separate cavalry museum at Saumur.

References:

Wikipedia

Museums in France

User Reviews

Donald McBain (4 months ago)
I am a tank freak to be honest. But for some reason it didn't have the same buzz as Bovington tank museum in England. There were a lot of tanks and stuff, but I couldn't get the feel for the place. Maybe I was looking forward to the place too much. This is not a negative review it's only my opinion.

Michael Rudd (7 months ago)
Great collection of vehicles and tanks, Would recommend a visit.. Defo worth the drive..

Dragos A (9 months ago)
Absolutely amazing experience. We visited the museum the day before Christmas and it was empty, allowing us to fully enjoy and experience all the tanks and items on display, completely unhindered!

Bryan van Soest (14 months ago)
If you're a real tank enthusiast or if you are interested in war vehicles, then this definitely is a place to go to. Very well put together, huge collection, great descriptions with some interesting facts and you can see where they restore the vehicles! I do recommend following the arrows on the floor.. they are tiny and easy to miss. It is a fun museum, there's loads to see. You'd be there for like +2h~ and of course they got a gift shop!! So go here and get your Spitfire socks! ;D

Dean Robitaille (15 months ago)
Wow ... I don't have the words to explain how my son and I felt when we visited recently. My son is 18, and is a gigantic war history buff. We live in Arizona, but made the trip to France specifically for this museum. We did other stuff while in France, but this was literally the reason why we came. And it did not disappoint. The sheer scale of this place, when you walk inside, is breathtaking. Breathtaking. And then as you spend easily the next few hours, walking around and learning, it becomes even more unbelievable. My son knew just about every single vehicle under that roof. He had a smile from one ear to the other the entire time. He'd come running up to me to point something out, with so much excitement, that I was blown away. I am a fan of war history as well, and have been for quite a while. So this place clearly rang with me as well. If you have a chance, no matter how slim, to visit this museum, you really do owe it to yourself to go. My son's high school graduation gift was to go to Germany, to see some museums. But after this we're broadening the scope. Oh, and the city it's in is really really lovely as well. ?

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