Mémorial de la France Combattante

The French Resistance and the memory of the Second World War are the subject of this museum in Blois, in the Loir-et-Cher department of the Loire Valley. It stands on the Place Victor-Hugo, in a renovated building near the royal château, and tells the story of the years of occupation from the point of view of the people who lived through them. It should not be confused with the Mémorial de la France combattante at Mont-Valérien near Paris, which has a similar name but is a national site in a different place. The visit in Blois concentrates on the local and regional story, and on how it fits into the history of France as a whole.

The context is the defeat of 1940, when German forces overran the country and divided it. The Loire Valley lay close to the line of demarcation that for two years separated the occupied zone from the so-called free zone governed from Vichy, and in Loir-et-Cher the line passed through the department, so that families found themselves on opposite sides of it. Blois itself was damaged during the fighting in 1940 and again in the later years of the war. The exhibition looks at how people in the region responded, from those who accepted the new order to those who joined clandestine networks, hid refugees, printed leaflets or took up arms.

The permanent exhibition is organised in four parts. The first sets the historical background and explains how the occupation worked. The next sections concentrate on individual stories and testimonies, so visitors meet ordinary residents who took extraordinary risks. A further section shows local events within the national history, with archives, weapons, uniforms and photographs, and the persecution of Jewish families and the deportations are treated with care. The final part is a space for reflection, where visitors are invited to think about memory and about the choices people made.

The museum is small and quiet, and a visit takes about an hour. Admission is modest, with reduced rates for young people and groups, but check current prices and opening times with the museum before you go, as these change. Temporary exhibitions are held from time to time.

It suits visitors interested in the history of the twentieth century, families with older children and those who want to understand a different layer of the Loire Valley, beyond its Renaissance châteaux. It is a short walk from the Château de Blois and the Cathédrale Saint-Louis, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Blois is also close at hand.