Arromanches ............... continued.
Moving into the Museum, with some general views of some of the exhibits.
I have to state from the outset that I was (only
slightly) disappointed with this Museum, although I can't identify exactly what that disappointment was. Perhaps, being a new, updated showpiece, I may have expected more in the way of artefacts and relics, I have no idea !
Anyway, on entering the huge foyer, which rises the entire height of the building, there are a couple of free-standing exhibits, including an engine from a Higgins boat, with a long reception desk where the entrance fee is paid, before moving left to receive some sort of electrical gubbins and a headset. Although in my case entry was free (being disabled), I noticed that the charge for general admission was
twice that of every other museum we visited during our tour - presumably to recoup some of the expense involved with the new building, and cover the cost of the "Hi-Tech" gubbins and other stuff which, perhaps, were not really necessary ? ( more of which later).
A friendly staff member handed out the headset to each visitor, and explained how the headset worked - press the number button corresponding to a display, and a personal commentary could be heard through the headset. This equipment was then handed over to another staff member on leaving the display galleries, to exit via the Museum shop.
Good views of the beach, and "Mullberry", could be had along the length of the ground floor, and also from a panoramic viewing gallery upstairs, where the main exhibition areas are located (thankfully, in my case, by a large lift, or "elevator", for our North American friends).
The overall "theme" of the Museum concentrates on the "Mulberry" artificial harbour (to be expected, considering the location), and a fantastic view of the remaining sections can be had from the panorama windows.
A fairly large, open-fronted cinema is the first stop, with a continuous presentation explaining the lead-up to D-Day, covering from Dieppe to the 1944 landings, and the need for an artificial port etc, which is fairly well done, especially for those with little or no knowledge of the history of these events.
However, I was becoming a tad bored with this and, when the commentary stated something along the lines of "but one man in England had a dream and a goal, and that man was Charles DeGaulle", I binned the headset, left the auditorium and tootled around the exhibition galleries !!
Slightly disappointed or not, there was still quite a lot to see, mainly well presented, although sometimes with the inevitable reflections on glass display cases making photography tricky at times.
Dominating this upper floor was an absolutely
huge diorama, in approximately 1/43rd scale, of one pier of the "Mullberry" harbour, together with a very large relief model showing the total extent of "Mullberry B" and the coastline, and this will be shown later in this section.
The pics below show part of the huge entrance foyer, with the Higgins boat engine, a couple of shots inside the cinema auditorium, and some general views of some exhibit cases.
Back soon with more from the Museum.