Car Hire in Le Havre, France
Almost all ferry passengers head straight out from the port of
Le Havre as soon as the traffic enables to escape a city that many guidebooks dismiss as dismal, disastrous and gargantuan. Even though it is not by far the most picturesque or even tranquil place in Normandy, however, it is far from the soulless urban sprawl the warnings suggest, even if the port - the second-largest in France after Marseille - usually takes up half the Seine estuary, extending way beyond the town. The city was actually created on the orders of François I in 1517 to replace the ancient ports of Harfleur and also Honfleur, then silting up, as well as the name was soon altered from the mouth-challenging Franciscopolis to Le Havre - "The Harbour". It became the major trading post of France's northern coast, prospering especially during the American War of Independence and thereafter, importing cotton, sugar and also tobacco. Within the years until the outbreak of war in 1939, it was the European home of the great luxury liners similar to the Normandie, Île de France and France.
Le Havre suffered heavier damage than almost every 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 - that makes it an exceptional entity, and something visibly circumscribed by constraints of time and money. The sheer sense of space can be invigorating, as the showpiece monuments have a very dramatic and winning self-confidence along with the few surviving churches as well as other relics of the old city which are already sensitively incorporated into the whole. The skyline has been kept deliberately low, however the endless mundane residential blocks, which were thrown up as economically and swiftly as possible after the war, get dispiriting after a few years. However, with the sea visible at the end of just about each street and open public space and also expanses of water at every turn, even those visitors who eventually fail to agree with Perret's famous dictum that "concrete is beautiful" should enjoy a walk around his city.
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