…normally makes one think of bunkers, pillboxes and heavily fortified strongpoints. On our recent trip we found something a little different, and it was about 25 years OLDER than Herr Hitler’s Atlantikwall.
Visible on the map just a little bit north of Sainte-Mère-Église is a strange annotation Hangar à Dirigeables – a bit of internet sleuthery and we found out that it’s actually a museum, on the site of a French navy airship base from the 1920s.
The main attraction is the concrete hangar, which can be seen from quite a distance away:
The museum is in one of the adjacent buildings, and tells the story of French Naval Air Station Montebourg from its beginnings in 1916 to the present day. The concrete hangar joined a wooden one, now long gone, a few years later. In its history the hangar has been used by the French navy, the German Wehrmacht during the occupation and the Americans after liberation. The US Army used it as a vehicle storage and repair depot. On the internal walls you can see traces of graffiti in all three languages.
It is quite massive inside:
A few weeks later, while planning a trip through Denmark, we came across this place:
Zeppelin Rental! It’s probably (definitely – internet sleuthery again) not a place to hire an airship, but on the off chance that they have an ex-rental dirigeable for sale, we know where to keep it!