When it comes to World War I museums, they don’t get any bigger than this. Extending over 32,292 square feet (3,000sqm), it contains nearly 70,000 items and documents – and, more remarkably, most of that collection previously belonged to a single man, the historian Jean-Pierre Verney. Around an hour from Paris, it is out of the way for the casual tourist, but the location is significant. There, the First Battle of the Marne was fought in September 1914. Now, Meaux’s collection commemorates that bloody conflict but also the advances it brought in other areas, like medicine, communications and the role of women in society.