Le Havre-Paris

About Le Havre-Paris

Le Havre is the cruise gateway to Paris, about 2.5 hours inland. Ships dock at the Terminal Croisières near the Volcan cultural center, in a downtown rebuilt after WWII to Auguste Perret's modernist concrete plans — itself a UNESCO site. Most passengers take a Paris-for-the-day excursion (Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Seine) or head to the D-Day beaches of Normandy and the Bayeux Tapestry.

• Le Havre is France's largest container port and second-largest port overall (after Marseille), strategically positioned at the mouth of the Seine on the English Channel — the name literally means 'The Harbour.'
• The city was founded by King Francis I in 1517 to replace the silting harbour of Harfleur, making it one of France's youngest major cities despite its immense economic importance.
• After being almost completely destroyed by Allied bombing in September 1944, Le Havre was rebuilt from scratch by architect Auguste Perret using a revolutionary modular concrete construction system; the rebuilt city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.
• The Impressionist art movement was partly born here: Claude Monet's painting 'Impression, Sunrise' (1872) depicts Le Havre's harbour at dawn and gave the entire art movement its name.
• Le Havre is approximately 200 km from Paris via the Seine Valley — cruise passengers regularly make the 2-hour journey by train to visit the French capital.