Essential to understand everything about the Great War - Simply unmissable museum. Everything is balanced… bold exterior architecture… even moving manicured park… with its statues, its machines and subtle originality with a circuit for broadcasting sounds outside linked to this war… the welcome is perfect. Reasonable price. Then the visit is quite simply very intelligently organized... educational without falling into gimmickry or excessive teaching... poignant films... perfectly eloquent reconstructions... an exhaustive visit for anyone interested in this war. Note the many buses of very young people who bring forth generations of future historians. It’s very encouraging to see this intergenerational mix. A magnificent moment of hope for peace. The shop is very well stocked... unfortunately no catering is a fairly notable lack or even not acceptable for such a place... otherwise go ahead.

The Best World War I Museum! - One of the best depictions of the Great War (WWI), of course, with a French perspective. That said, it was objective in presenting all sides and highlighting the utter futility and waste of waging war as a means of settling disputes between nations. The exhibits took us from the humiliation of the French in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the loss of Alsace and Lorraine through the horrors of WWI and up to the 2010s and the continuing conflicts plaguing the world. I would highly recommend it as a side trip from Paris. Make it an overnight so you can fully appreciate the museum and take the two hour ride east to see the sites of the First Battle of the Marne.

Excellent Museum on the Great War - An excellent museum on the Great War, you could easily spend the better part of an entire day here going through all the exhibits, and then proceed to the north and east to visit the many battlefields of World War I nearby. There's a short film upon purchasing your ticket followed by an exhibit that begins with the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 and how these sowed the seeds of discontent decades before the Great War erupted. There's free wifi for following the audio tour on your phone - recommend bringing bluetooth headphones so you can click and listen throughout the tour. Great info and very well laid out information from start to finish with interactive exhibits that kids will find interesting. There are trenches laid out the way they would've looked at the time along with first hand accounts, charts of what happened and when, as well as vehicles, tanks, field guns, etc.. Lots to see. At the end of the tour, there's a rooftop terrace open at times that gives a nice view of the surrounding area along with a path that leads to a monument commending fallen American soldiers - although as of this writing the statue had scaffolding around it for refurbishment and was closed to visitors for the time being. There's a gift shop and toilets at the of the tour as well with what appeared to be vending machines on the ground floor (lift available for those who may need it). World War I - history buffs will especially enjoy this museum. Free parking on site.

Very informative and lovely museum but a bit far - First time visiting this museum. We went to Gare de L’Est and took the P train to Meaux…no washrooms on train and trip is covered by Navigo. The train ride was about 40 mins then upon arrival we had to wait for Bus G which goes directly to the museum. Being a Sunday and holiday, bus G was the only one that goes there and every bus comes in 55 mins or so. We just missed one so we took a bus at stop 7 or 8 that stops at Jean Vilas, it is the 3rd stop get odd and walk 35 minutes straight ahead until museum. On a weekday would be much better because there are about 5 different buses that go to the museum unlike the weekends. A very kind lady that works for the trains told us to just walk after getting off at Jean Vilas. She was so helpful and nice, but everything was spoken in French. The museum is 7 euros for seniors and one can easily spend 3 to 4 hours enjoying all the artifacts, the life sized models, the short videos, the section on the role of the women during WW1, all the exhibits, and the beautiful roof top with a beautiful view. By about 5:15 pm we were at the roof top and had a pate baguette as we did not eat lunch. We could have spent more time on the roof top looking at what was the battle field but security came to close up the roof at 5:30 but museum still open til 6 pm. Our visit was great and we enjoyed the museum as we learned a lot but my only suggestion is the museum should have more English translations beside many of the French only exhibits like journals and letters written by the women. During the French videos, they should also have English translation perhaps on the screen. There were many exhibits in French only. To take the bus back to the train station, hop across the street to the right and again the bus comes every 55 minutes. Again on a Sunday and holiday, it was bus G. It was sunny and pleasantly warm sitting on the bus bench so we sat patiently for the bus.

Great collections, great exhibit layout - If you want to just explore the story, you walk through the lower half of the exhibit area. If you want to see more artifacts, you walk into the upper half of the exhibit area. You can spend as much or as little time as you want. Perfect! AND it's one of, if not THE best Great War collections in Europe. .

Excellent - Stunning WW1 museum. Excellent collection of so many WW1 artefacts, so much information and in various language. Visually stunning and educational. Really worth a visit, Covid safe and a good space to walk around, hardly anyone here.

Great place to visit - My nephew loves history, so we decided to go for this museum. It is a great place to visit. It is quite big, and we were blessed to get there early morning and met a lovely gentleman in a war outfit. He explained it all to us. He moves around the museum and gladly answers any question anyone may have. The museum is full of interesting artifacts and also shows some interesting little movies on the subject. It is a great place to do with kids or with people who are interested on the subject. The souvenirs are fairly priced, and they have a large selection of books for sale on the subject of war.

Excellent, modern museum in historic region and near Paris! - In our many trips to France I've wanted to explore the WWI historical ground a little, but always the major sites were a little too far from Paris, well beyond Reims. But the westernmost advances of the invasion were quite close to Paris. Here, in the area of Meaux, the French army turned and fought the invaders to a stand still, and a partial retreat. The relatively new and very modern Musee de la Grand Guerre provides an important destination and resource for WWI history. The main visit path concentrates on modest number of artifacts, but presented in engaging reconstructions of battle environments. Particularly notable is the use of historical video and sound in the background of simulated bunkers and trenches. A series of separate rooms provides more nearly "exhaustive" exhibits with large numbers of objects - imagine 50 different kinds of hand grenades - focussing on multiple themes of military experience. We spent 2 hours there. It is not possible to describe a museum about WWI as an uplifting experience, but it was very informative and interesting.