A Humungous Dirigible Hangar

October 28^th, 2025

My ferry to Cherbourg, France was scheduled to leave at 8:30 am from Poole, a small harbour city about 45 minutes from my aunt’s place.  I left early to make sure I was there on time and by chance, as I entered Poole, I happened to see my cousin Sid’s wife Sonia on her commute to work!  That was a nice surprise, and we waved good-bye to each other.

Sonia snapped a photo of me in Octi.

Only about 10 minutes after I passed through security, they started to load the ferry, an hour before the departure time.  The boat was probably less than ¼ full with vehicles and everyone must have been on board as we set sail 15 minutes before the stated departure time.

The Barfleur.

The ferry is called the MS Barfleur, named after a small fishing town in Normandy, France.  I quite liked it.  There was a nice lounge area, a restaurant and even a bar.  You could also rent a private cabin for the 4 ¼ hour journey if you liked.  The only thing that stood out to me was that there weren’t any slightly reclined, comfy chairs that would allow you to have a nice snooze during the sailing.

Quite plush inside for a ferry...

The main lounge area.

"Old Harry Rocks" on the Jurassic Coast of England:

Bye England!

It was a bit chilly and windy outside.

During the voyage, I took a look at Google Maps to solidify my plan once we landed.  Originally, I thought I would drive a couple of hours to camp near Mont Saint-Michel, a tidal island off the coast of Normandy.  However, when I filtered on “Things to do” on the Contentin Peninsula, one stop piqued my interest: an old hangar for dirigibles!  How often do you get to see one of those?!?  Well, never before for me…so I better check it out.

Arriving in Cherbourg.  Kinda hard to tell from this photo but those are a bunch of wind turbine fins.

After a few stops just south of Cherbourg to pick up a few items and get some Euros from an ATM, I arrived at the “Hangar A Dirigeables” near the small town of Ecausseville with a population of just over 100.  The building looked massive and it is supposedly the only freestanding, reinforced concrete dirigible hangar left in the World!

After parking Octi, I entered a nearby building where there was a museum with displays about events that occurred in the area during WWI and WWII, followed by some history about the dirigibles.

Octi outside of the hangar.

This is a WWI heavy duty vehicle for pulling around artillery guns and supplies.

WWI uniforms.

Sending some Morse code messages:

In WWI, the US used the hangar for storing and repairing vehicles.

When submarine warfare became a thing around WWI, the French utilized dirigibles to locate subs and even attempt to destroy them.  Numerous dirigible hangars sprung up around the countryside, but this is the only one left in France.

A model of the hangar.  The doors were interesting.  They were so massive that they ran on railroad tracks and had to have a massive counterweight (seen on the bottom left of the photo) to keep them from putting any pressure on the hangar.  Unfortunately in WWII, the Germans left the doors open and then were destroyed in a storm.

One of a number of stained glass images in the museum.

After the museum, it was time for the main attraction, entering the hangar itself.

Outside the hangar:

I could barely fit the thing in the photo!

After the doors were wrecked, they simply created a wall with cinder blocks.  You can see the entrance door, which looks tiny, at the bottom middle of the rectangular turquoise steel wall.

It was gobsmacking…so immense and cavernous.  It almost seemed bigger than it actually was due to a large cloth draped down the entire far wall which depicted the hangar with a dirigible in it.  It gave the illusion that the hangar was even longer that it was.  Super cool as it really gave you an idea of what it would have looked like with one of those massive airships parked inside.

There were a couple of small blimps inside.

Wowsers!!!

Behind the blimp on the right, you can see a camping trailer between the support beams...

...and look how many of those camping trailers you could fit in here!

Massive!

It was used by the Allies to house some German prisoners...and there was some left over graffiti from the Krauts.

The photo on the massive fabric draped on the far walk gave you a sense of what it would have looked like back in the day.  I was impressed by the "poster" itself and it looked like one seamless piece of fabric.

Looking back to the entrance.

Afterwards, I decided to drive about 20 minutes to a free campsite for motorhomes and campervans, a stone’s throw from Utah Beach with a museum.  Utah Beach was one of the landing sites for the Americans during D-Day in WWI.  I visited some D-Day museums back in 2010 with the original Betty, but I hadn’t been to Utah Beach…that was the plan for tomorrow.

Sunset on the way to Utah Beach.

I couldn’t help but finish the day with a smile as I had no idea that I would visit a dirigible hangar when I woke up in the morning…that’s the beauty of Wandergliding!