Musée 39-45


Popular period songs play as you stroll past dozens of life-size tableaux of WWII military and civilian life at this museum. The dashing but wildly impractical French officers’ dress uniforms of 1931 hint at possible reasons that France fared so badly on the battlefield in 1940. The museum also screens archival films.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Dunes de la Slack

0.96 MILES

Just south of Ambleteuse along the estuary of the tiny Slack River, the area's wind-sculpted sand dunes are covered with – and stabilised by – clumps of…

2. Musée du Mur de l'Atlantique

2.15 MILES

WWII hardware including a massive, rail-borne German artillery piece with a range of 86km is displayed at this well-organised museum, housed in a colossal…

3. Brasserie Artisanale des 2 Caps

3.77 MILES

Historic farm buildings deep in the countryside house one of northern France's best artisan breweries, established in 2003. Sample and buy here, or look…

4. Cap Gris-Nez

3.99 MILES

Topped by a lighthouse and a radar station that keeps track of the hundreds of ships that pass by here each day, the 49m-high cliffs of Cap Gris-Nez are…

5. Nausicaá

5.71 MILES

At this vast manta ray–shaped aquarium – one of the world's largest – huge tanks with floor-to-ceiling windows make you feel as though you're swimming…

6. Porte Neuve

6.01 MILES

This 13th-century gate, modified in the 17th and 19th centuries, is at the northeastern end of the Haute-Ville's rue de Lille.

7. Haute-Ville

6.02 MILES

Boulogne's hilltop Upper City is an island of centuries-old buildings and cobblestone streets. You can walk all the way around this 'Fortified City' atop…

8. Auguste Mariette Statue

6.02 MILES

Cast in bronze, this statue atop a small pyramid commemorates the pioneering Boulogne-born Egyptologist Auguste Mariette (1821–81), founder of Cairo's…