We had intended to visit the Musée de la Guerre de 1870 et de l’Annexion in Gravelotte. In reading the website it states the languages as French and German. Is it worth visiting if I cannot read the materials?
Posted by
Long Beach, Ca, usa
2340 posts
How about Google translate on your phone? You can point the phone at the printed info and get a translation, if I understand it correctly. Maybe worth a check?
Posted by
San Francisco
15503 posts
Very much so.
This is it if you end up seeing the site. Called Gravelotte by the French and St Privat by the Germans, this horrific battle is comparable to Gettysburg or Antietam. There is a saying in France about that battle: "ça tombe comme à Gravelotte "
I first went there in July 1999, the musee was closed but saw everything else outside. The joint Franco-German military cemetery was very revealing, especially on the Prussian units involved. Those plaques are against the walls.
Obviously, the website of the expanded musee is informative. You can access the musee from Metz, the PEM bus depot. I did not get around doing that this time since I chose to go to Nogent-sur-Seine one day and on another day took off to Charleville-Mezieres to explore instead.
The outcome of Gravelotte would play a role in boxing in Napoleon III and his army near the Belgian border at Sedan.