Prepare your visit

Opening hours

The Airborne Museum is open every day from Monday to Sunday :

• May to August: 9:00 am – 07:00 pm. 
• April and September: 9:30 am – 6:30 pm. 
• October to March : 10:00 am – 06:00 pm

Closed in December and January except for Christmas vacations: this year, the museum will reopen from December 21 to January 5, 2025.

About 2 hours are needed to visit. Last ticket sales one hour before closing.

Animals are not allowed (except in closed carrying bag); thank you for your understanding.

Access

Near the museum, you will easly find the Normandy landing beaches : Utah Beach (few minutes from Sainte-Mère-Eglise), Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, Juno Beach, Sword Beach but also famous areas like La Pointe du Hoc, the American Cemetery of Colleville/Mer, the German Cemetery in la Cambe…

With a road network including several highways Paris is less than 3h away, the Northern region 4 hours away and Belgium is 5 hours away.

How to move in La Manche ? Please visit this website : http://www.commentjyvais.fr/en/

The Airborne Museum is located right in the heart of Normandy within the department of Manche in the city of Sainte-Mère-Eglise. Thanks to its large road network which is the 20th greatest of France, the Manche is a department easily accessible no matter where you come from. The Airborne Museum is reachable via the Nationale 13 from Cherbourg to Caen, if you come from one of those 2 cities, you will join Sainte-Mère-Eglise without any problem. Moreover, there are many rest areas on the road to fill your car with gas or to have a little break with a snack. When you come from Deauville, you just have to join Caen to access the museum via the N13. For those who live around Saint-Lô, the N174 permit you to reach the N13 which have an exit at 1km to Sainte-Mère-Eglise.

In order to join the department of the Manche, you can also take the highway A84 which link Caen and Rennes. The advantage of this highway is that there isn’t any toll so any interruptions and it’s free. Coming from Paris, the trip last 3h30 until you arrive at the Airborne Museum

Obviously, you can easily go to the Airborne Museum without using your car. Indeed the train station of Carentan is connected with the station Saint-Lazare in Paris. On the train line there are 3 stops before reaching Carentan : Caen, Bayeux and Lison. Once you are arrived at Carentan, you have two possibilities : take a taxi or take a bus from the Line 1 direction Cherbourg-Octeville for 3€. If you need to cross the Channel, you can take a ferry from Portsmouth to Ouistreham or Cherbourg. The trip until you arrive in Cherbourg last 3h !

You may understand it, the Airborne Museum of Sainte-Mère-Eglise is easily accessible. You won’t have any problem to arrive at the end of your trip in this beautiful and authentic town.

Explore the Sainte-Mère-Eglise Kayak travel guide to help you find your way around and plan your trip!

You can also consult the Kayak flight guide to plan your trip to Sainte-Mère-Eglise.

Where to park

The Airborne Museum is surrounded by parkings, thus greatly facilitating things for visitors. If you’re in the bourg, there is a parking in front of the museum, as well as the church’s. There is also a parking behind the museum, near the roundabout, in the Docteur Masslin street. Be warned though: they are all paid parkings. But the museum kindly asks you not to hold it against our hostesses at the desk, as it is not the museum who administers these parkings, but Sainte-Mère-Eglise’s town hall.

Accessibility for people with reduced mobility

Each building of the museum, as well as the entrance building, are either at ground level, or equipped with boarding ramps for handicapped persons. There is however one and only unreachable space: the platform in the C47 building.

Near the Museum

The Airborne Museum and Sainte-Mère-Eglise are ideally located between the sea, the marshes and the countryside. It is thanks to this environment that the region can offer you a multitude of activities ranging from the discovery of the Normandy Landings and Battles to sports outings, whether natural or urban.

Plan your stay and spend a week-end or Holiay in Normandy : visit the Normandy Tourism website

Our favorites

• Camping of Sainte-Mère-Eglise: A few steps from the bell tower of Sainte-Mère-Eglise and the Airborne Museum, the Sainte-Mère-Eglise** campsite is an ideal place for short or long stays. It has spaces for tents, motorhomes and motorhomes, but also mobile homes, chalets and vintage caravans.
• Camping Le Cormoran in Ravenoville-Plage: on the seaside near Utah Beach, camping Le Cormoran is 10 minutes from Sainte Mère Eglise. It offers you 2 to 3 bedroom rentals and spacious pitches in the unspoilt natural setting of the Cotentin marshes. Ideal for a relaxing stay 20 meters from the beach. For couples or families, enjoy its heated indoor swimming pool and its many children’s playgrounds.
• La Cité de la Mer in Cherbourg: Elected in 2015 as the third favourite monument of the French in a famous television show, La Cité de la Mer in Cherbourg is an unmissable theme park in Normandy where the adventure of the oceans is experienced in great depth. During the visit, young and old embark on board the Redoutable, the largest submarine in the world, then marvel at the heart of the Ocean Pole in front of the 17 basins, including the 11 m deep Abyssal Aquarium… In the Titanic space, they relive the crossing of the mythical liner, from its stopover in Cherbourg to the tragic night of the shipwreck.

Normandy has an impressive cultural diversity due to its history and location. With 471 km of coastline, 330 km of which are in the department of Manche alone, Normandy is a region with magnificent beaches where you can observe landscapes that are completely different from each other. Take the example of Mont Saint-Michel with its quicksand and exceptional tides known throughout the world, this magnificent site, which is one of the most visited in the world, contrasts totally with the landing beaches of Utah, Omaha, Sword, Gold and Juno where the war left its mark with the impact of shells on the ground or the blockhouses. You will find here everything you can dream of thanks to the many museums related to D-Day such as the Airborne Museum, the Utah Beach Museum, the Arromanches Museum or the Caen Memorial. Named in history forever, Normandy is and will remain a place of memory for all soldiers and civilians of the Second World War.

Chausey Islands: You will have the opportunity to discover centuries of history, each place telling a different chapter. Want to be cut off from the world? Chausey is an island belonging to the English Channel where you will be completely out of the way with its large rocky beaches and its castle. A lover of medieval history? Manche is the right place for you, especially with its magnificent castles of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte or Gratot.

Obviously, Normandy and in particular the Manche are not just historic sites, Normandy gastronomy is very important. The taste of the meat of a salt meadow sheep is a specialty of Manche as can be the case with the mussel of Barfleur or the beer of Sainte-Mère-Eglise. The teurgoule is a Normandy specialty known all over the country, but is it so much than the Livarot, the Pont-l’évêque or the very famous Camembert ? With a unique flavor, the andouille of Vire and the Caen style guts will show you new dishes. The gastronomy of Normandy doesn’t have to be shy because it’s a great part of the French gastronomy.

Normandy is a land of character filled with men and women with a big heart. With more than 2000 accommodation options ranging from comfortable hotel rooms to unusual tree houses, there is no doubt that you will find what you are looking for here.