What's new
British Ordnance Collectors Network

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Musee de la targette

AMMOTECHXT

Well-Known Member
Ordnance approved
Premium Member
Last week I visited a small museum in Neuville St Vaast, a village close to the Vimy memorial a few miles north of Arras. It is almost exclusively dedicated to WW1. Admission was 4 Euros. I was refused permission to photograph inside. It may be small but is packed with ammo and equipment. They state that they are prepared to buy / sell exchange. An expended artillery fuze (and therefore incomplete) costs as little as 4 Euros but for grenades they charge around 30 Euros for a tatty relic and up to nearly 100 Euros for one in more complete condition and quality. A WW2 No 69 grenade was for sale for 95 Euros. I didn't ask about their FFE documentation if indeed they supply any, or whether such documentation if it exists might be accepted by UK and other authorities. The address is 48 Rue Nationale 62580 Neuville St Vaast tel (00 33) 21 59 17 76. The museum is recognisable by two very big shells stood outside the front door.
 
It is an excellent museum. I have visited it many times and have bought reasonably priced shells there ( years ago before 9/11 and all the after effects). Wouldn't try getting them back to UK now!!
Richard
 
Some photos here: http://www.warmuseums.nl/gal/097gal.htm - I visited this museum several years ago and photography was forbidden then, but after I asked, my video camera was allowed! It was in the days before digital video cameras, so perhaps they thought there was no possibility of getting stills? The nearby Muse Vivant 1914-1918 - Ablain-Saint-Nazaire also forbade cameras, but allowed video and was better with larger displays, though an awful lot of multiple duplicate items - it also had an outdoor "reconstructed battlefield" of relics gradually rusting away - I prefer to see them in situ on real battlefields! However I took my small (at the time) son and the staff turned downright hostile when he got frightened in the cage-like turnstile they had outside when it jammed with me in it and he refused to go in :-(
 
Top