Airborne Museum, Sainte-Mère-Église

The Airborne Museum stands in the center of Sainte-Mère-Église, in the Manche department of Normandy. You may also see the town spelled Sainte-Mere-Eglise, without accents. The museum covers the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and their landings in the first hours of June 6, 1944. If you want to understand the Sainte-Mère-Église paratrooper story, or the airborne side of D-Day before you head to the beaches, this is the place to start.

What you will see

The park and its five pavilions

The museum is set in a park with five pavilions, so you walk between buildings rather than through one long hall. The route mixes staged scenes, interactive screens and small immersive displays.

One of the life-size scenes shows paratroopers of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne, boarding at an airfield in England in June 1944.

The C-47 pavilion

One pavilion houses a C-47 aircraft. Inside this pavilion you also find a parachute-jump simulator, one of the immersive displays on the route.

The HistoPad

Every visitor can use the HistoPad, an augmented-reality tablet. You point it at the displays to see extra layers of the story. Check the official site for current details.

Temporary exhibition and reserve tours

From May 14, 2026 to November 30, 2027, the museum runs a temporary exhibition called “Comics go to war.” It is a good reason to come back if you have visited before.

On set dates only, the museum offers guided tours of its reserves at a higher ticket price. Dates and prices for these tours are on the official Airborne Museum site.

When the museum opened

The two main sources disagree on the opening year. The regional tourism board dates the museum’s first opening to 1962. The museum’s own site marked 2024 as its 60th anniversary, counting from 1964.

Planning your visit

When to go

The museum opens every day for most of the year, including public holidays. The exception is December and January, when it closes except during the Christmas school holidays. Even then it shuts on a few days around Christmas and New Year. Opening hours change with the season, and the ticket office stops selling before closing time. Check the Visit facts box above for hours, last ticket sales and closed days.

For month-by-month planning, see the best time to visit Normandy. If you are coming around the anniversary, read D-Day Anniversary: June 6 in Normandy first.

How long to allow and booking

Allow about 2 hours. The museum’s homepage says 2 hours to 2 hours 15 minutes, which leaves time for the HistoPad and the simulator.

You can buy tickets online through the museum’s ticket shop, which the Visit facts box links to. At the desk, the museum takes MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Maestro, cash and checks. For entry prices and free-entry rules, see the Visit facts box above.

Families and accessibility

The museum is a good fit for families. The displays are set up so children do not see graphic or traumatic content, and a dedicated children’s trail has its own panels. There are toilets and a baby-changing area on site.

The reception building and all five pavilions are on one level or have ramps. The platform inside the C-47 pavilion is the one part that is not accessible to people with reduced mobility. Pets are allowed only in a closed carrier.

The Explore Normandy Pass

The Airborne Museum is a partner of the Explore Normandy Pass, the official pass of Normandie Tourisme, the regional tourism board. See the Visit facts box above for what the pass gives you here. My Normandy Pass is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with Normandie Tourisme or the official Explore Normandy Pass. To add up entry prices for the sites on your list, try the Normandy pass calculator.

The museum also has reciprocal ticket deals with several other museums, including the Utah Beach Museum, the Arromanches D-Day Museum, Memorial Pegasus (closed from September 1, 2026, with no confirmed reopening date) and La Cité de la Mer. Check the official site for the details.

Combining with other sites

The museum fits well at the start of a day in the American sector, before the beaches. See One Day on the D-Day Beaches for a full route, or the D-Day beaches map to see where everything sits.

Getting there

By train

The museum names Carentan as its station. Carentan is on the Paris-Caen-Cherbourg line, which runs from Paris Saint-Lazare, and on the Rennes-Cherbourg line. The museum does not describe how to get from Carentan to the town, so arrange your onward transport before you travel. For more car-free ideas, see Normandy Without a Car.

By car

The museum gives these driving times:

• From Paris: about 3h30, on the A13 and then the N13 from Caen toward Cherbourg. The A13 Saint-Cloud tunnel near Paris is closed in the Paris-to-Normandy direction from November 16, 2026 to the end of August 2027, with signed diversions.
• From Caen: 45 minutes on the N13.
• From Cherbourg: 35 minutes on the N13.
• From Rennes: 1h45 on the A84 and N174.

The town runs two car parks. One is on the church square opposite the museum, and the other is behind the museum at the Saint Ode roundabout. Coaches have a 15-space park on Voie de la Liberté, with motorhome parking next to it (no services). There is bicycle and two-wheeler parking near the main entrance. Check the official site for parking charges.

By tour

If you plan to join a guided D-Day tour, ask the operator whether it stops at the Airborne Museum, and how long you get there. For trips from the capital, see D-Day Beaches Day Trip from Paris.

Nearby

The driving times below are OpenStreetMap estimates without traffic.

Utah Beach D-Day Museum is about 17 minutes (15 km) away. It is the nearest of these sites, and it shares a reciprocal ticket deal with the Airborne Museum.

Pointe du Hoc is about 37 minutes (39 km) away, so you can visit it in the same afternoon.

Normandy American Cemetery is about 39 minutes (47 km) away and pairs naturally with a day focused on the US divisions. The American Battle Monuments Commission expects compulsory pre-registration for all cemetery visitors from summer 2027.

Bayeux is about 44 minutes (56 km) away and works well as an overnight base for the beaches.