Normandy – Museums and Cherbourg

I've visited three since I've been here. The Victory in Normandy Museum, the The D-Day experience and the 101st Airborne museum. The D-Day experience is good as you can take a flight in a Dakota simulator, and the 101st museum with its five pavilions you have lots to see.

I also spent a day in Cherbourg. Unfortunately it was badly damaged in 1944, so there is little originality left, but it's a pleasant city. In the harbour is a vast building which used to be the passenger terminal for ship travel. From the mid 1800’s to the mid 1900’s over 36 million people left Europe, the Balkans and Russia, heading for South America, Canada and the USA, with the bulk arriving in New York. Many millions of emigres left from Cherbourg, chasing the American dream. Alas, when they got to the USA, many soon realised that there was no American dream, as they were expected to build the American dream.

The terminal was badly damaged in 1944 but was rebuilt in 1947 and carried on being a passenger terminal, but the days of the steam liner was over so after closing for a while, the terminal was brought back to life and has become a vast museum: La Cite de la Mer.

In the large hall where the trains used to stop there are several submarines that were used for deep-water research. Then there is the Titanic museum, which was really interesting. There is also a huge aquarium which besides showing you lots of information about the sea, its life and its fish, there is a huge tank and several smaller tanks with all kinds of fish. Even jellyfish.

The final part of the museum is Le Redoubtable, which was the first nuclear ballistic missile submarine built by France - in Cherbourg. France built their first operational submarine at Cherbourg in 1897, and remains a shipbuilder for all their current submarines. Having Le Redoubtable here is a fitting memorial to the shipbuilding skills of Cherbourg.

The nuclear reactor has been cut out of the submarine with the hull connected back together again. You can walk around from the back to the front, and with your audio guide you can experience what it was like to be on a proper nuclear submarine.

I spent four hours here and to be honest, I felt I had to rush at the end. If you visit, give yourself at least half a day. There's even a cafe, so you could even make a day of it.