Strong increase in visitors to the Museums of the Navy
The National Museum of the Navy has 6 sites . If the one in Paris is the best known, there are 5 other sites on the coast, in Brest, Port-Louis, Rochefort, which has 2 and Toulon. While the museum in the capital was closed all year, the museums on the coast attracted 258,550 visitors in 2022. The increase is 42% compared to 2021, and close to 2019, the last pre-Covid year. More than 100,000 visitors roamed the exhibition halls during the summer of 2022, and the school vacations took advantage of the general postponement of the French vacations in France, with a higher number of visitors than in 2019.
Exhibitions that attract visitors
The Musée National de la Marine has two branches in Brittany. The Château de Brest, with an exhibition Voyage en Terres Australes. Crozet & Kerguelen, 1772-2022, attracted 77,199 visitors and the Citadelle of Port-Louis, attracted 74,617, notably thanks to the Minimalist Wave installation by Alain Bourdon.
On the Atlantic, Rochefort and its two sites were visited by 41,313 visitors. In 2022, the Naval Medical School celebrated its 300th anniversary.
In Toulon, the Mediterranean museum exhibited the photos of Ewan Lebourdais Titans of the seas, the ships of the French Navy. It received 65 421 visits.
Return of the Musée de la Marine to Chaillot in 2023
The year 2023 will be marked by the return of the flagship of the Musée de la Marine. Indeed, the site of the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, closed since 2017, will reopen in October after more than 5 years of work. New scenography and enhancement of the collections are on the program.
In the meantime, there is no shortage of programs for 2023 at the various coastal sites, including:
- in Brest, from June 16 to March 3, 2024, the exhibition Plongée, contre-plongée : les sous-marins dans l'objectif
- in Port-Louis, from May 10 to December 31, the presentation of the works of the students of the European School of Art of Brittany (EESAB)
- in Rochefort, from July 12 to December 31 on the site of the Hôtel de Cheusses, the exhibition Pierre Loti et Gustave Viaud - Deux frères unis par la mer, on the occasion of the centenary of the death of Pierre Loti
- in Toulon, from June to December, the exhibition Thinking about tomorrow's armaments: the DGA, a history of the future, devoted to the Directorate General of Armaments in the Toulon area.
