I'm sorry to resurrect this thread but I visited Hermione today and just wanted to thank you all for the inspiration to make the trip, especially Sven who raised it in the first place. When I get chance I will look through the photos I took and see if any add to the collection already posted.

I also went round the Marine Museum which had some lovely models. I did try to persuade Mrs V to buy me a model of the Hermione, they were excellent but at E840 and E1200 she declined and I had to settle for some postcards instead.

We had a long talk to one of the volunteers who built, sailed and maintain the ship, she proved a mine of information but I had to correct her on one occasion when she refered to the British stealing Concorde, the sister ship to Hermione and where they got the working drawings from to build Hermione. I explained we did not steal her but captured her in a fair fight, although to be honest I don't know if it was a fair fight.
We had a bit of fun discussing the relative merits of our nations ships and navy's and as I consider the longer French ships to look nicer than the more chunky British ships she was very happy with that admission.

If anyone gets the chance I would suggest making the effort to see her, I thoroughly enjoyed my day.
Cheers