Musee de la Grande Guerre de Meaux (WWI)

During my time here in Paris I went to a lot of museums. Museums about art, but mostly museums about war. I went to two museums about WW2 and one Holocaust museum. I also went to two museums about WW1 and on top of that, I visited three memorials for both wars. Living in a country where the war actually took place on the soil is a weird feeling. The French view on the war and how it affected them is much different than the American view of it. It is something that I truly cannot fully comprehend and probably never will. Going to these museums I understood a lot more than I have in any other history class, ever and I was grateful for it. France and Europe are very good at honoring the past and never forgetting it. Visiting these museums and seeing the blood-stained clothes, the pictures, the videos, and the relics really make all of this real. It is hard to see and hard for me to grasp. I can't imagine living in these conditions and surviving through it. It looked horrible and brutal. Our tutor told us that this war was one of the most horrific and violent ones that scared people forever.

Frances main role in WW1 was helping their allied forces, the British, American, and Italian soldiers defeat the German troops. Due to this war being one of the most brutal and due to it involving men literally all over the world, the death count was significant. The war finally ended in 1918 with over 8 million French soldiers dead. This not only affected the soldier's families, but it really affected the country and its national pride, leaving Paris a hopeless city.