Most ferry passengers head straight out of the port of
LE HAVRE
as quickly as the traffic will allow to escape a city that most
guidebooks dismiss as dismal, disastrous and gargantuan. While it is
not the most picturesque or tranquil place in Normandy, however, it is
not the soulless urban sprawl the warnings suggest, even if the port -
the second-largest in France after Marseille - does take up half the
Seine estuary, extending way beyond the town. The city was originally
built on the orders of François I in 1517 to replace the ancient ports
of Harfleur and Honfleur, then silting up, and its name was soon
changed from the mouth-challenging Franciscopolis to Le Havre - "The
Harbour". It became the principal trading post of France's northern
coast, prospering especially during the American War of Independence
and thereafter, importing cotton, sugar and tobacco. In the years
before the outbreak of war in 1939, it was the European home of the
great luxury liners like the Normandie, Île de France and France .
Le Havre suffered heavier damage than any other port in Europe
during World War II. Following its near-total destruction, it was
rebuilt to the specifications of a single architect, Auguste Perret,
between 1946 and 1964 - which makes it a rare entity, and one visibly
circumscribed by constraints of time and money. The sheer sense of
space can be exhilarating, as the showpiece monuments have a dramatic
and winning self-confidence and the few surviving churches and other
relics of the old city have been sensitively integrated into the whole.
The skyline has been kept deliberately low, but the endless mundane
residential blocks, which were thrown up as economically and swiftly as
possible after the war, get dispiriting after a while. However, with
the sea visible at the end of almost every street and open public space
and expanses of water at every turn, even those visitors who ultimately
fail to agree with Perret's famous dictum that "concrete is beautiful"
should enjoy a stroll around his city
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