Le Havre : the French New York

Hello everyone,

Sorry for my absence these past few days but to be honest I didn't have a lot of content to share with you. Yesterday I saw an article about Le Havre which is a town that I visited last year. I really enjoyed visiting this city and today I want to share with you my discoveries about this amazing town.

Le Havre is a town located in Normandie which is in the north of France. It has been founded in 1517 by king Francis the 1st but it is from the end of the 18th century that the town began to be on the rise because of its harbour which is now the second largest of France after Marseilles's port. This city is one of a kind partly because it has been one of the most destroyed French town during the World War Two. So after 1944 bombings, a french architect Auguste Perret rebuilt the city in a new style with reinforced concrete buildings. This original reconstruction gives to the city an aerial and futuristic vibe which let some Havrais (name given to Le Havre residents) liken it to New York. The rebuilding of the city lasted 19 years from 1945 to 1964. Thanks to Auguste Perret the city was listed as a wold heritage site by the UNESCO the 15th July 2005. Only a small part of the city was save by the bombing which is the district of Ste Adresse considered as the chic neighbourhood of the town. The new architecture of the city has been hardly accepted by the inhabitants but since it has been listed by the UNESCO in 2005 the Havrais are proud of their town such as Anna-Lisa who told me that in her opinion " Le Havre is a big city very nice to live. Founding an accomodation is really easy and in addition the town is located in front of the sea where you can eat in one of the numerous restaurants or just bring your sandwiches and watch the sea sitting on the colorful huts.". Now the city is often mentioned in the newspapers such as The Guardian who published an article in 2017 qualifying Le Havre as "a short break built on concrete chic".

If you want to visit the town I am giving you a list of the things that you must see there :

• The Church of St Joseph is an iconic church with an amazing architecture in concrete which was built on Auguste Perret plans.

• The museum of modern art André Malraux or MuMa built on 1955 is the most important museum of Le Havre

• Auguste Perret's show flat, I would highly recommend you to visit it because and let show you how the town was created and show you its amazing architecture.

• Le volcan or the "yhogurt pot" is a library designed by the famous architect Oscar Niemeyer is one of the monument that you must see in the city.

• The aquatic complex bain des docs is a swimming pool with an amazing design from Perret.

• Port 2000 is the harbour of Le Havre. I you want to visit it you can take a boat which let you admire this amazing port one of the biggest in Europe.

• Bee le Havre is a bus that you can take if you want to have a great overview of the city. I would recommend you to do this at the beginning of your journey in Le Havre. As you may understand, in my opinion le Havre is a city that should be knwon more and I hope that this blog post gave you the desire to visit the town. Have a nice week !

The French Art de Vivre

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