French Aviation and Space Museum at Le Bourget (Musée de l’air et de l’espace )

I have also visited and it’s a great aircraft museum.
Thanks for the pics - nostalgia trip for me :)
 
Actually, Le Bourget is not a limited to an Air Force Museum, but 'Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace du Bourget' : Aerospace and Space Museum
 
Nice ! went there in May 2013.
nitpicking: it is Mistral and not Mistel. Mistral was a licence build improved DH Vampire
 
I was there this summer.

Mostly free of charge, lots of undertasked personnel, nice little shop (mostly French books, of course), unique aircraft (Mirage 4000, Rafale M01, British and French Concordes, some prop racing plane I've never heard of before).

Downsides
- marginal presentation except in the Normandie-Njemen regiment building, which hosts a single Yak fighter.
- ridiculous WW2 hangar (Skyraider is in there!) with few and very common aircraft types

I have never before seen a museum with obviously high budget yet so poor presentation.


It fits to my poor impression of Paris suburbs. Lots of people in publicly-funded jobs where they have to do nothing but waste time. No love or passion left an imprint on anything. No place where I want to be.
 
lastdingo said:
I was there this summer.

Mostly free of charge, lots of undertasked personnel, nice little shop (mostly French books, of course), unique aircraft (Mirage 4000, Rafale M01, British and French Concordes, some prop racing plane I've never heard of before).

Downsides
- marginal presentation except in the Normandie-Njemen regiment building, which hosts a single Yak fighter.
- ridiculous WW2 hangar (Skyraider is in there!) with few and very common aircraft types

I have never before seen a museum with obviously high budget yet so poor presentation.


It fits to my poor impression of Paris suburbs. Lots of people in publicly-funded jobs where they have to do nothing but waste time. No love or passion left an imprint on anything. No place where I want to be.

Although there is some defect in that museum, Clearized-Mirage F1 is impressive.

And their cold-war age prototypes are rare one.
 
lastdingo said:
I was there this summer.

Mostly free of charge, lots of undertasked personnel, nice little shop (mostly French books, of course), unique aircraft (Mirage 4000, Rafale M01, British and French Concordes, some prop racing plane I've never heard of before).

Downsides
- marginal presentation except in the Normandie-Njemen regiment building, which hosts a single Yak fighter.
- ridiculous WW2 hangar (Skyraider is in there!) with few and very common aircraft types

I have never before seen a museum with obviously high budget yet so poor presentation.


It fits to my poor impression of Paris suburbs. Lots of people in publicly-funded jobs where they have to do nothing but waste time. No love or passion left an imprint on anything. No place where I want to be.

To be fair, although the Skyraider didn't see any action in WWII, the XBT2D-1 prototype made its first flight on March 18, 1945.
 
While I agree that Le Bourget could do a better job of presenting some of the collection, I am not surprised that they their WWII exhibit is weaker than other eras. They lost the Battle of France, if you remember, and French forces other than Vichy forces active in North Africa and the Free French forces fighting with the Allies were largely sidelined. If I remember correctly, they did have a Dewoitine D.520 and maybe a Morane-Saulnier MS.406, which were the principle French fighters of the Battle of France along with the Curtiss Hawk 75. The rest of the WWII exhibit *should* be common WWII allied types, though I thought they had Normandie-Niemen MIG as well. For me, the interesting stuff at Le Bourget is uniquely French: the early French pioneer and WWI planes, St. Exupéry's Caudron Simoun, Mignet Avionette and Pou-du-Ciel, and, as others have mentioned, the wacky 1950s-1960s prototypes.
 
from memory of my 2013 visit I somewhat agree with your "downsides" It is a little frustrating indeed.
 
I lived in Paris 5 times for a total of 13 years : I don't like Paris but there are some good places in Paris too. And I like even less the suburbs, but there are numerous beautiful places near Paris beyond the suburbs.

Le Bourget is an active Airport too, where a world aviation show takes place every two years.

I visited the museum numerous times during these 13 years. Mostly the shop, but when I visited the museum as such, I often rediscovered new aircraft as my interests evolved.

Furthermore, there are each year, in September, the European Heritage Days (during a week end), where it is possible to visit the "reserves" of the Museum, in Dugny, near Le Bourget Airport. We can see there a lot of other planes, even if mostly French planes, but not only, and sometimes to various states of restoration.

And each first saturday of each month, it is possible (on appointment) to access the Documentation Center, and ask to read a huge quantity of historical files about French and others lands Aircrafts. But the security conditions of the documents are drastic and the copies are expansive...

Until the last year there was each year a Flea Market in the Museum, but the museum administration no longer wants this flea market inside the museum grounds. And probably it will now take place in small towns near Paris like Gimont or Saint-Médard-en-Jalles (as other aero flea markets in past years).
 
lastdingo said:
I was there this summer.

Mostly free of charge, lots of undertasked personnel, nice little shop (mostly French books, of course), unique aircraft (Mirage 4000, Rafale M01, British and French Concordes, some prop racing plane I've never heard of before).

Downsides
- marginal presentation except in the Normandie-Njemen regiment building, which hosts a single Yak fighter.
- ridiculous WW2 hangar (Skyraider is in there!) with few and very common aircraft types

I have never before seen a museum with obviously high budget yet so poor presentation.


It fits to my poor impression of Paris suburbs. Lots of people in publicly-funded jobs where they have to do nothing but waste time. No love or passion left an imprint on anything. No place where I want to be.

From what I know the museum works with a very small (public) budget to maintain the huge collection they have. They do what they can with what they have.
As for your poor impression of the suburbs, are you sure your recollection is not from a soviet socialist republic ?
Le Bourget is clearly not the richest town in the Paris suburb. You should visit Neuilly-Sur-Seine, Bougival... maybe will fit your idea of love or passion.
 
The collection at Le Bourget is terrific, but what I have found disappointing is that the Great War and Pioneer hall has been closed for years, despite deadlines of when the museum has advertised that it would be reopened coming and going. Nevertheless, while presentation might be lacking in some areas, that collection of rare and fascinating airframes is unique and a national treasure. A few from my collection.
 

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but what I have found disappointing is that the Great War and Pioneer hall has been closed for years, despite deadlines of when the museum has advertised that it would be reopened coming and going.

That is a pity. :(
 
nah, the Mirage F2 won't leave Toulouse and Airbus world anytime soon. If it ever escapes the CEAT, it will go to Aeroscopia.
 

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