Le Havre

Known around the world for its downtown reconstructed by Auguste Perret, the city of Le Havre unveils to its tourists an important architectural and cultural heritage.

Rebuilt after the Second World War, downtown Le Havre is the work of Auguste Perret, a French architect specializing in reinforced concrete. Main historical attraction of the Norman commune, it extends on nearly 150 hectares, mixing housing and civil buildings. A true masterpiece of 20th-century art, it has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Last monument created by Auguste Perret, the church of Saint Joseph stands proudly in the middle of the reconstructed center of Le Havre. A true sanctuary dedicated to the victims of the Second World War, the concrete building reveals a tower-tower of 110 meters in height, as well as impressive stained glass windows. It has been listed in Historical Monuments.

Inaugurated in the late 1950s, the town hall impresses with its façade and dimensions. Built by Auguste Perret and Jacques Tournant, it features a large 18-storey tower and a garden designed by Auguste Perret himself. The large esplanade now hosts part of the tramway route of the city.

Le Havre has, however, preserved some more ancient monuments, like the cathedral Notre-Dame, classified as Historic Monuments. Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque, it dates from the end of the sixteenth century. Small originality, one can admire inside the old way of the cross of the ship, Normandy.

Other medieval religious buildings are also visible, such as the Graville Abbey, the oldest building in Le Havre. Classified as a Historic Monument, it blends Romanesque and Gothic styles. The chapel of Ingouville, of the fifteenth century, also deserves the detour with its flamboyant Gothic style.

There are also many monuments testifying to the maritime vocation of the Norman town, such as the Vauban docks, the Tourneville fort, or the famous hanging gardens. The latter are a botanical garden located inside the old fort of Sainte-Adresse and pays tribute to the city's botanists who have traveled the world to discover new plant species. One finds in particular greenhouses and thematic spaces on America or Asia.

The city of Le Havre also has five museums labeled Museum of France, following the example of the André Malraux Museum. Dedicated to art, it unveils collections from the end of the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. Monet, Renoir, Dufy and Boudin are appreciated here. Eighteenth century residence, the house of the Shipowner has been classified Historic Monuments and now houses a museum unveiling the life of the high dignitaries of the city under the Ancien Régime. Located in the old private mansion Dubocage de Bléville, the Museum of Ancien Havre allows to discover the history of the city through time. Do not miss the museum of natural history whose building is classified to the Historic Monuments. It is still home to interesting specimens of palaeontology and zoology.

Rarely in the country, Le Havre houses within its downtown a pebble beach. It has a number of recreational and entertainment facilities, such as children's playgrounds and sports fields, and enjoys the benefits of the Channel Sea.

The city of Le Havre, which has inspired many painters and artists of all kinds, has retained an important cultural tradition.

Le Havre markets are held on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays in the morning. A Christmas market also takes place in December.

Literary Festival, the Taste of Others is held in January. Through lectures, lectures and other cultural events, it highlights the literatures of the world.

Original, the Fest Yves is an event in Breton colors that takes place in the Saint-François district every May.

Dixie Days is a jazz festival that takes place in June on the beaches of Le Havre and Sainte-Adresse.

Polar at the Beach, a literary festival dedicated to detective novels, is organized every year in July. Like the world music festival, Moz'aïques, it takes place in the Z'Estivales, street entertainment taking place throughout the summer.

In September, the feast of the sea unveils the start of a race linking Le Havre in Bahia, Brazil.

• From 13 april to 9 june 2024
• 30 Rue Gabriel Péri, Le Portique
• Visual artist Bianca Bondi transforms the art center into an artificial landscape composed of natural elements. With this immersive creation, she explores nutritional psychology, drawing inspiration from the importance of spices in the history of Le Havre. - Her work takes the form of monumental and immersive installations, as well as two-dimensional works. She selects materials according to their intrinsic properties or their potential for transformation, whose combinations create strange, new surfaces. - By encouraging possible mutations between elements, she makes them the actors of slow conceptual performances, on both macro and microscopic scales. The artist links these organic encounters to current situations or the history of places, and supports an ecological discourse by attempting to bring us closer to the intangible. - Opening on Friday April 12,2024 at 6:30pm. - Exhibition as part of Normandie Impressionniste.

• From 15 april to 30 june 2024
• 76 Rue du Fort, Les Jardins Suspendus
• In search of fluidity, simplicity and the awakening of the senses ? Philippe Pousset draws, then sculpts wood, inspired by the marks of time, the curves of a body, an animal, rich nature, natural movements ? The wood dictates what should come out of it, and all he has to do is listen, look and feel, while trying to abandon technique and let things happen. - "My inspiration comes from looking at this rich natural world and seeing what it reflects back to me ? everything is there, everything has already been created by the action and energy of nature. All that's left is to get as close as possible, to feel it, to let it penetrate me, and to bring my own vision to bear - More than a dozen sculptures will interact with the Jardins suspendus as a whole, to be discovered among the vegetation, in the four themed gardens, the greenhouses and the Alvéole 13 exhibition gallery. - The artist will be present in the gardens on Sunday, April 28

• From 4 may to 11 june 2024
• 149 Rue Victor Hugo, Galerie Corinne Le Monnier
• Leaving the house, camera slung over shoulder. In a hurry, in a hurry because you're in a hurry, to get to the playground you've chosen for the day. Often the beach, or a little further on, the outer harbour, the town center. Here, the pace slows down and the walk becomes something special. It's a question of pace, rhythm, wandering attention to the landscape, perception of others, and the framing of your path. - "De l'épure au flou" is the fruit of a decade of solitary wanderings, here and especially in Le Havre, but also from Marseille to New York, from Paris to the Queen Mary… There are no other places evoked here ; it's the inevitable and necessary heartbreak of starting with fifteen hundred images and retaining only sixty or so… Purity is like the quest for a refined, decanted, refined image. Going to the bone of the composition, in an attempt to express and share its essence, like the writing of Samuel Beckett or Jean Racine, to quote his favorite playwrights… - Sometimes, however, the truth appears differently and, as in the theater, it seems to shine out best under the mask of a character, through an intermediary filter between the eye and its object. This is what I call, oxymoronically speaking, my opaque transparencies. The blur induces, sharpens the visual and intellectual acuity of the viewer, awakens the imagination or memories, provokes interpretation and opens the door to other narratives, perhaps. - Opening on Saturday May 4 from 6pm.

• From 8 may to 8 june 2024
• Esplanade Jacques Tournant, Théâtre de l'Hôtel de Ville
• Echoing the exhibition Photographing in Normandy, 1840 ? 1890 at the MuMa, the Frac draws on its collection to present a selection of abstract photographs in dialogue with the work of Rouen artist Marc-Antoine Garnier. - Like the Impressionist paintings, the photographs on show reflect a sensitive approach to reality. Through the framing and settings adopted, the subjects become indistinguishable and the photographs take on a pictorial dimension. - Founded in 1983, the Fonds Régional d ? Art Contemporain (Frac) Normandie now boasts a public collection of over 4,000 works of contemporary art, reflecting the diversity of contemporary art. It distributes works from its collection and promotes the work of local artists through a program of exhibitions at its facilities in Sotteville-lès-Rouen and Caen, as well as throughout Normandy.

• From 15 may to 15 june 2024
• 387 Rue Aristide Briand, Théâtre Le Normandy
• Piero Ghiglione 1940 ? Conquering the mountains of Albania - In 1940, Piero Ghiglione, a seasoned mountaineer, embarked on a campaign to explore the mountains of Albania. Some of the peaks were already known, but many others were conquered by him for the first time. In his book, Montagne d'Albania, published in Tirana in 1941, he describes them meticulously, drawing up an unequalled up-to-date inventory. The book is illustrated with 60 photographs by Piero Ghiglione himself. An Albanian-language version, Malet e Shqipnis, will also be published. - As Franco Tagliarini, director of Albanian News, wrote : "In each of these pages vibrates a profound beat of humanity. Every valley reveals a shepherd's song, every peak relives its legend made of flesh and blood, so that when you close his book, all around you resounds the glory of space and silence, but it is also the soul of man refined and purified by the wind of millennia, by the eternal whiteness of the snows." - Exhibition created by the Ecrits de lumière association (Loïc Chauvin, Grégor Marchal, Christian Raby). The association has been working on Albanian photography since 1990. In 1995, it published a book dedicated to the Marubi dynasty, the first work devoted to Albanian photography.

• From 27 may to 25 august 2024
• 130 Boulevard François 1er, Église Saint-Joseph
• To mark the Year of Auguste Perret, an exhibition celebrating the centenary of the Raincy church is on show until August 25,2024 at the Saint-Joseph church in Le Havre. - Initially presented in Le Raincy, then in architecture schools, this exhibition, which invites us to discover Notre-Dame de Consolation, the first church designed and built by the Perret brothers, naturally finds its place at Le Havre ? S Saint-Joseph church, which crowns the work of Auguste Perret. As early as 1918, Félix Nègre, parish priest of Raincy, wanted to build a new church for 1,000 worshippers, dedicated to the victims of the First World War. Several projects fell through due to lack of funds. - It wasn't until 1922, when he met the Perret brothers, that his project finally came to fruition. To keep within budget, Auguste Perret drew on their expertise in the construction of industrial buildings in reinforced concrete, and dared to design a religious building in which the concrete was left entirely exposed. This particularity constitutes the innovative and pioneering character of this church, now known the world over as the Sainte Chapelle du Béton Armé. - Maurice Denis and Antoine Bourdelle, who had previously worked on the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with the Perret brothers, were also involved at Le Raincy : one to design the figurative stained-glass windows, the other to sculpt the tympanum of the porch. Marguerite Huré, a young stained-glass painter at the time, created all the stained-glass windows. After a long career, she again worked with Auguste Perret on the stained-glass windows for Saint-Joseph in Le Havre. - The exhibition presents : the context of the construction, the architectural and technical choices made, the laying of the foundation stone on April 30,1922, the progress of the works and the inauguration on June 17,1923, the artists and their work. The presentation is rounded off by successive restoration campaigns, the most recent of which was completed in 2023 on the bell tower. - The exhibition, produced jointly by the Association Restaurer l ? église du Raincy and the Société Historique du Raincy et du Pays d ? Aulnoye (SHRPA), is based on the archives of the two associations and those of the Cité de l ? Architecture, the Musée Maurice Denis and the Musée Bourdelle.

• From 31 may to 26 june 2024
• 44 Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, Galerie Hamon
• It's already been 2 years since the gallery presented Volume I of the Prestige Urbain exhibition. - Thanks to the exceptional collaboration of a private collector, Galerie Hamon is delighted to be able to present its exhibition dedicated to the great names of street-art and graffiti. - Among these remarkable works are 3 by Banksy, the most famous of English graffiti artists despite his infallible anonymity, whose reputation has been built on his politically engaged and sometimes controversial stencil works. - Some of the most famous names on the street-art scene will also be adding their names to this incredible mix : C215, Cleon Peterson, Cofee, Cyklop, Damien Hirst, Futura 2000, Hopare, Jace, James Jean, JDL, Jonone, Kaws, Levalet, Martin Whatson, Obey, Sandra Chevrier, Seen, Space Invader, Takashi Murakami, Taki 183. - All these world-renowned artists are among the precursors of an artistic movement that has left its mark on our times. - For the occasion, the 2 stars of Le Havre street-art will be associated with the event : the famous Jace, whose Gouzous need no introduction, and Teuthis and his collages based on the marine world. - Opening on Friday, May 31,2024 from 6pm. - Exhibition runs until June 26,2024.

• From 3 to 7 june 2024
• 271 Rue Louis Blériot, Aéroport Le Havre -Octeville
• As part of the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Patrouille Acrobatique de France (PAF) will be training at Le Havre-Octeville airport from June 3 to 7. - Highlights : - - Arrival of the Patrouille de France on Monday June 3 at 11:30 a.m - - Training flight for the D-Day parade on Tuesday June 4 at 3:55 p.m - - Take-off for the parade over Omaha Beach on Thursday, June 6 at 3:55 p.m - - Departure of the Patrouille de France on Friday, June 7 at 4:47 p.m - The public can watch the PAF Alpha Jets take off and land from the lawn opposite the airport parking lot. - For the occasion, the Havre-Octeville airport restaurant will extend its opening hours.

• On 4 june 2024
• 148 Rue Victor Hugo, La Galerne
• Winner of the 2020 Goncourt Prize for his novel "L ? anomalie", Hervé Le Tellier conducted a real investigation to write his new book "Le nom sur le mur". It tells the story of André Chaix, a Resistance fighter, a maquisard and a young man whose life was cut short. - "I soon knew I'd like to tell the story of André Chaix. Without doubt, all lives are romantic. Some more than others. Eighty years have passed since his death. But looking at the world as it is, I have no doubt that we still need to talk about the Occupation, collaboration and fascism, the rejection of the other to the point of destruction." (Hervé Le Tellier). - Registration required.

• On 4 june 2024
• 195 Boulevard Clemenceau, Club Nautique Havrais (CNH)
• As part of the "JO 2024" program and the passage of the flame through Le Havre, this meeting is dedicated to explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot, who set out from Le Havre for the South Pole twice in the early 20th century, aboard the "Pourquoi Pas". Meet the scientist, explorer and Olympic champion who made sport a central part of the extreme daily life of his wintering crews. - Known for his many polar missions, Jean-Baptiste Charcot was also an accomplished sportsman. An athlete, he practiced boxing, fencing and rugby. Thanks to some Normandy fishermen who taught him to sail during his summer vacations, he distinguished himself at the 1900 Paris Olympic Games with two medals in the sailing event, some of which took place off Le Havre ! - Sport would always play a key role in Jean-Baptiste Charcot ? S life, both in maintaining the physical condition of his crews during wintering in Antarctica, and for his own "Olympic form", which would see him hoist himself into the foresail to guide the helmsman through the Arctic glaciers.