WW1 Reenactment Weekend, Meaux

Each September the Musée de la Grande Guerre, just outside Meaux, hosts a two-day living-history weekend with around 300 reenactors from 28 associations portraying French, German and Italian troops of the First World War. Rather than re-staging one battle, the programme runs as a sequence of set-piece scenes across the museum grounds and the town — parades, a working replica of the WW1 tank La Madelon, a simulated gas attack, trench and canteen life, and period music — on the ground where the German advance on Paris was halted in September 1914.

In the grounds of the Musee de la Grande Guerre, rue Lazare Ponticelli, Meaux; open 9.30am to 6pm both days. The museum car park is closed to general visitors for the weekend and reserved for disabled badge holders, so drivers should use the Champ de Foire car park on avenue de la Marne, from which free shuttle buses run continuously to the museum. By rail, Meaux station is about 25 minutes from Paris Gare de l'Est on line P, and the P'tite Navette shuttle connects the station to the museum; shuttle timetables are published from 25 August 2026. Admission covers the reenactment, the permanent collections and the temporary exhibitions: booked in advance (until 10pm on Friday 4 September) 5 EUR for one day or 8 EUR for a two-day pass, rising to 7 EUR and 10 EUR bought on the day. Under-12s enter free. The immersive trench is a 3 EUR supplement and must be reserved for a timed slot.