Musée des Blindés

The Musée des Blindés ("Museum of Armoured Vehicles") or Musée Général Estienne is a tank museum located in Saumur in the Loire Valley of France. It is now one of the world's largest tank museums. It began in 1977 under the leadership of Colonel Michel Aubry, who convinced both the French military hierarchy and the local political authorities. Starting with only a few hundred tracked vehicles, it is now a significant collection which attracts visitors interested in the history of multinational tank development as well as professional armor specialists. From the beginning, Aubry made it a key policy of the museum to restore historically or technically significant vehicles to running condition. The museum has the world's largest collection of armoured fighting vehicles and contains over 880 vehicles, although The Tank Museum in Bovington, England has a larger number of tanks. Because of shortage of space, less than a quarter can be exhibited, despite the move to a much larger building in 1993. Over 200 of the vehicles are fully functional, including the only surviving German Tiger II tank still in full working order.