Great War Museum, Pays de Meaux

Symbolically located at the foot of the American monument commemorating the Battles of the Marne in 1914 and 1918, the Museum of the Great War located in Meaux, west of Paris, provides an entry point to understanding the First World War.

A Unique Collection in Europe

The museum presents the extraordinary collection of Jean-Pierre Verney, a renowned specialist of the First World War. Built up over many years, the collection includes rifles, machine guns, swords, bayonets, shells, torpedoes, everyday objects from both the front line and from behind the lines, large objects (a Blériot XII-2 plane, a SPAD XIII plane, a Parisian taxi, two Berliet trucks including a homing pigeon truck), more than 200 complete army uniforms, newspapers, photographs, glass plates, posters, postcards as well as drawings, letters, engravings and paintings.

A unique collection in Europe that presents the conflict not just from a technical and military point of view, but also from a human and social perspective. The collection gives a sense of the daily life of the soldiers, women and children and the constant back and forth between home and the front line. All the nations that fought are represented in the collection of uniforms.

An Original and Sensitive Representation – Accessible to Everyone

Including reconstructions of French and German trenches and shelters, projections of archival and fictional images, educational games that highlight the economic impact of war, period equipment and objects that you can look at and touch — the museum allows the visitor to be completely immersed in this complex subject.

For young visitors, there is a free games booklet (8 years +), an audio-guided tour (12 years +, 2 €), and a reduced family entrance fee.

Discover the Great War Museum through one of the treasure hunts in the Paris Region Adventures application specially designed for families and downloadable free of charge.

Discover the Army Museum's collections in Paris.