The Musée des Blindés is a tank museum located in Saumur and one of the world's largest tank museums. The museum has the world's largest collection of armoured fighting vehicles and contains well over 880 vehicles, although the British Bovington Tank Museum has a larger number of tanks. Less than a quarter can be exhibited due to space limitations despite the move to a much larger building in 1993.
Over 200 of the vehicles are fully functional, in the past often performing in the annual cavalry show, the Carrousel. Saumur has been the traditional training centre for cavalry and holds the current Armoured Cavalry Branch Training School. The museum has its origins in the study collection. It's still a State institution, run by the Army. There is also a separate cavalry museum at Saumur.
References:The Château du Lude is one of the many great châteaux of the Loire Valley in France. Le Lude is the most northerly château of the Loire Valley and one of the last important historic castles in France, still inhabited by the same family for the last 260 years. The château is testimony to four centuries of French architecture, as a stronghold transformed into an elegant house during the Renaissance and the 18th century. The monument is located in the valley of Le Loir. Its gardens have evolved throughout the centuries.