Saumur

Carrousel de Saumur 2013 - Spectacle Equestre et Militaire

The French have always taken their cavalry seriously. For several hundred years they had some of the best cavalry in Europe. No less than Napoleon Bonaparte established the cavalry school in 1814 in Saumur, a medium sized city east of Angers in western France. Saumur is a now a thriving city, and the annual Carrousel was packed with locals and tourists, some from far afield.

The first thing to observe is that this is not Bovington. It has a different purpose. Bovington is about tanks, tanks of all countries. The Carrousel is about cavalry, which includes the horsed kind, the motorcycle kind, and the tank kind. Saumur is a big military base and is also responsible for nuclear, biological and chemical warfare research for the French Army.

The cavalry school and the Musee de Blinde are physically separate. I'm not sure of the exact relationship between the school and the museum: it is obviously close. But unlike Bovington where you get tanks all day, at the Carrousel they only occupy one third of the three hour program.

I don't have time tonight to write captions for all these photos - it is nearly 2300 as I write and I have a plane to catch tomorrow and promised myself an early night.

We only had a couple of hours in the tank museum. I as worried there would be a huge rush at the Carrousel. In retrospect we could have given ourselves 30 minutes more.

But here are what you really want.

Out and about...

For those of my friends who worry that I have an obsession with military museums, here are some shots mostly literally taken "on the street" of various cities we have stayed in.

There is a separate post of the Pergamon Museum, one of the great cultural institutions of the world.

Last time Paul and I were in Berlin the Pergamon was closed for renovations. So we were a little concerned when we rocked up to find all this work going on. The works being done won't be complete until 2025! But in the meantime, you can still go to the Pergamon, by a side entrance.

Modern Berlin is the capital of Germany, the richest large country in Europe. Berliners are well dressed, well fed and often drive beautiful cars, especially in the area we were staying, which was on the corner of the Kurfurstendam and major cross street. This would be roughly equivalent in Melbourne terms to having a hotel on the corner of Russell and Collins St.

This guy could really play the glass harp.

The Pergamon is more than a century old and represents the work of German archaeologists from the 1870s through to the present day.  Pergamon was a Hellenic city state in modern day west coast of Turkey, near Troy. Its rulers were a particularly enlightened bunch and caused to be built one of the most beautiful collections of ancient art to survive.

The Military History Museum at Dresden used to be a Hohenzollern palace, and now is a Hohenzollern palace with a huge glass and steel shard through the middle of it, which continues out the back. The architecture is sensational, although I was disappointed in the content.

Paul and I are creatures of habit. In Dresden we couldn't wait to visit our favourite restaurant, Poseidon, which is around the corner from our hotel. The food is just fabulous and the maitre'd is a character who speaks a mixture of Greek and German with hilarious results. As Paul said, his only regret is that the restaurant isn't in Australia so he could visit it more.

The architecture at the Dresden Hbf  (main station) is spectacular. The train we were in was actually Czech and appeared to have originated in Prague and was heading for Hamburg. It wasn't an ICE express, but it was still pretty quick on a heavily trafficked line.

Not a very good photo, this crab was in the restaurant near our Moscow hotel, the Maxima Panorama.

I don' know if crabs have memories, but the leap this one made off that rocky outcrop was breathtaking.

This spectacular structure, which looks like a 3 legged spider, was intended to be a restaurant. But someone forget to connect water. Also it wasn't quite clear how the guests were meant to get there. But it looks spectacular!

Military History Museum Dresden

Paul and I have now visited this museum three times and each time we have left with mixed feelings. In 2008, the museum had quite a good display in a more or less conventional manner, but many exhibits were in storage because they didn't have the space to display them.

In 2010 the museum was closed due to a massive rebuilding program, which was very disappointing.

In 2013 the rebuilding is completed but the displays have been totally redone. The results are very disappointing for the military buff. It is though the museum has been redesigned by pacifists who see military history from a particular perspective. From my perspective, the results are bizarre and, although I think I understand what they are trying to achieve, the current display fails.

The architecture is adventurous but there is little hardware.

At what point one of the curators came over to chat and he told me that they rebuilding the stables behind the building to display all the gear they have and that will be finished in 2015. So I guess I will be going back!

Here are some of our photos from this interesting but unsatisfying museum.

The Seehund was one of a range of midget submarines built by the Germans in  the final year of the war, principally to attack Allied shipping. Although hundreds were built, they achieved little and suffered high casualties.

This is an interesting display of pikes and armour, of which the museum has a reasonable collection although much of it is not now on display.

I think this is a NATO 105mm mountain gun/howitzer, a modern, relatively  light artillery piece.

The 20mm turret of a Spahpanzer, the German standard armoured car, which bears a remarkable resemblance to its WW2 cousins.

The vehicle collection outside includes this very good looking Gepard, the air defence version of the Leopard with twin 35mm radar controlled guns.

This is a late model Leopard 1, with spaced armour.

This is a German Spahpanzer recon armoured car. This vehicle has a very sophisticated transmission.

The T-80 was the standard main battle tank of the East German  Army at the time of reunification. This immaculate copy features a range of defensive and fire-control aids.

This is the turret of the BMP-3 with a 30mm gun.

This display highlights the arms race between the Royal Navy and the Imperial Germany Navy. Tirpitz and his successors never understood that the Riskflotte strategy - basically have a "fleet in being" was likely to fail because Britain had to have a superior navy for survival. For Germany it was an expensive adornment which antagonised the British.

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This PZH 2000 is the German Army's standard 155mm self propelled artillery piece. Built on a Leopard hull, with an extra road wheel it is a very large, very capable but expensive vehicle.

The PzH 2000 from the front is an intimidating sight.

The little Weasel is the vehicle for supporting Germany's airborne forces. It has been surprisingly successful in service but it would be a deathtrap in a serious battlefield, akin to a Bren carrier.

Another shot of the T-80