It’s proper name, in French, is La Musée de la Percée du Bocage, which they themselves translate into the ‘British Breakout from Normandy Museum’. In our guidebook, we call it the ‘Bocage Breakout Museum’, which I think is a simpler name. The museum, which celebrates its 30th...
The Musée des Arts et Métiers (Museum of Arts and Crafts) in Paris is almost the French equivalent of the Science Museum in London, and it is absolutely packed with the most fascinating historic, scientific, mechanical, experimental and industrial exhibits. Be prepared to allocate plenty of time...
World of Volvo, the Swedish vehicle manufacturer’s new cultural experience centre, opens in Gothenburg on Sunday (14th April). The centrepiece of World of Volvo is 4,500 square metres of exhibition space, carefully designed to showcase Volvo’s innovations and commitment to “omtanke” – consideration – emphasising safety and...
Everybody, especially grown-up and young kids, loves scale models. That’s everything from large radio-controlled model aircraft and ships – through detailed model cars, trucks, Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV), figures, space & sci-fi, scenes & dioramas – to elaborate model railways in all gauges down to tiny z-scale....
The D-Day Omaha Museum is a small private museum packed with military items, uniforms and equipment that were gathered over a 50 year period by Michel Brissard, an enthusiastic military history collector who was born in 1945, the year WW2 ended. Now, the museum is run by...
A new display of ‘Jolly Roger’ flags flown by Royal Navy submarines is launched today (27/03/2024) at The Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport. It will expand the museum’s previous collection of Jolly Rogers by including the earliest known surviving example and the museum’s newest acquisition, a Jolly...
The London Canal Museum (LCM) has launched its new summer season of canal boat trips on the Regent’s canal. Booking is open now and the trips start on 28th March. This is the museum’s second season of trips made possible by a collaboration with the nearby Angel...
A memorial garden in Senghenydd, which commemorates those who died in the worst disaster in the history of British mining, has been given the “recognition it deserves” and formally acknowledged by the Welsh Government as the National Mining Disaster Memorial Garden of Wales. The garden was officially...
Hagerty’s Festival of the Unexceptional (FOTU) celebrates its 10-year anniversary at Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire on Saturday 27th July. I didn’t know there was such a thing, but I love the way it gently sends itself up! Festival of the Unexceptional, a show dedicated to great everyday classic...
The Normandy Victory Museum, sub-titled the Musée de la Bataille des Haies (Battle of the Hedgerows Museum) is quite a large museum (2,000 m²) and is definitely worth a visit, especially around lunchtime, because it also has a large brasserie restaurant split into a bistro and pizzeria....
A new exhibition featuring 23 exotic clockwork treasures beloved by Chinese emperors, and loaned from The Palace Museum in Beijing, opened this week at the Science Museum in London. The magnificent 18th century automata, called Zimingzhong 凝时聚珍: meaning ‘self-sounding bells’ or ‘bells that ring themselves’, combine timekeeping,...
The Bawdsey Radar Museum is a small museum set up in the former transmission bunker on the 168-acre Bawdsey Manor estate, which became the home of British radar development in the 1930s, and later became RAF Bawdsey, a radar training school and Cold War missile base. The...
Blenheim Palace, home to the Dukes of Marlborough since 1705, has started its annual deep clean, which, it turns out, is quite a complex process requiring more than a can of Pledge (other multi-surface cleaners are available) and a feather duster! The deep clean includes everything from...
The Air & Space Museum (Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace), sprawled around the magnificent art deco terminal building at Paris’ former passenger airport, Le Bourget, is France’s premier aviation museum. It’s huge, and well worth the journey to the outskirts of Paris to visit. Only, make...
This is a niche blog about technically-minded travel. It reflects my own interests in the mechanical, technical, historical, engineering, transport and military world.
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