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Utah Beach Landing and Airborne Museums temporarily closed (Nov 2023)

Posted by (Nashville, TN, USA) on

Anyone traveling to the World War II sites in Normandy in the next few weeks should know the Utah Beach Landing Museum and the Airborne Museum in Ste-Mare Eglise are both closed currently-- winter closings a little earlier than usual for both of them.

Utah Beach Landing Museum closed yesterday (Nov 12, 2023) and we showed up today...argh. It re-opens Dec 16, 2023.

The Airborne Museum will re-open Feb 10, 2024.

A good reminder to check websites or call, even up to the last moment, in the off-season. Lesson learned (as we peered through the glass doors at Utah Beach, standing in the pouring rain). At least we have a story! And we have seen plenty other moving, amazing things in the last couple days.

HLH

Posted by
28065 posts

It wouldn't have occurred to me to warn visitors about seasonal closings there, but I noticed in 2017 that small museums down on the Riviera often cut back their days of operation in the winter, some being open only 3 or 4 days a week.

Posted by
1227 posts

I'm sorry you missed the Utah Beach Museum. I believe it is one of, if not the, best WWII museum in the Normandy Beach area. I follow them on Facebook and saw they were closing for a while. I hope you can make it back there some time. In the meantime, if you go North along Utah Beach, there are remains of many German fortifications along, and just inland from the beach that are amazing to walk around. Some you can walk to from the beach entrance next to the Utah Beach Museum, and others are a very short drive North along the coastal road (you can see them from the road). And none of those can be closed. Additionally, while in Sainte-Mère-Églsie, you can drive to the Merderet River West of town and see the Iron Mike Monument and the site of the battle fought ferociously for that bridge.

Posted by
441 posts

Ah yes, the bridge over the Merderet River at La Fiere. I was very privileged to know Capt. Robert Rae, 82nd Airborne, who received a Distinguished Service Cross for leading a charge across that causeway.

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