Le Havre
- Maximus Nostramabus
- 1 day ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 8 hours ago
A city rebuilt - Le Havre, the City Rebuilt by Auguste Perret 1181; Gastronomic meal of the French 00437; Artisanal know-how and culture of baguette bread 01883
What and Why
The once beautiful port city of Le Havre, depicted by Claude Monet's famous painting of his hometown 'Impression, Sunrise (French: Impression, Soleil Levant)' was totally devastated during the Battle of Normandy and its Operation Astoria, when the Allied powers bombed the city extensively in order to cut off the Nazi Germany's (German: Deutsches Reich) logistic chain during the Second World War. Almost all of the city buildings were destroyed by the operation, leaving the city in absolute ruins. The entire local population was exhausted and displaced.
After years of war, the French government was unable to restore the port city to its former glory and prosperity. While many European cities attempted to reconstruct their historic buildings after wartime damage, the scale of destruction and the poor economy in Le Havre made such restoration difficult. The government could only hope to provide the locals with housing as quickly and cheaply as possible, as a gesture of goodwill. The residents, having lost everything, had no bargaining power and had no expectations as long ast hey could rebuild their homes. For the sake of speed and price, they had to accept the government's offer that their new homes would be using mainly concrete, a cheap building material not highly regarded in France as it was largely used in slums.
In came one man in 1945, Auguste Perret, the principal architect of the Le Havre reconstruction project and with his understanding of classical architecture and reinforced concrete, transformed the decay into something magical, restoring the city's dignity and glory after reconstruction. Usually architects are responsible for only one or a small cluster of buildings, but in this case, Perret can redo the entire city in one go. It is rare that an architect can literally start a blank canvas and he took full advantage of this artistic freedom, though with limited resources.
The reconstruction of Le Havre was coincidentally Perret's last architectural masterpiece. Perret and his team developed an ambitious plan to rebuild the city centre according to modernist principles while maintaining a sense of order, harmony, and civic dignity. To make the city look beautiful and comfortable, he borrowed the ideas and wisdom of ancient Greek architecture, using a human comfort length-scale of 6.24 m (approximately two people's shoulder width multiplied by a factor and incidentally an optimal length span for a reinforce concrete slab) to form a unified modular rectangular grid around the city, picture as below. Building facades, column spacing, and window openings were all scaled up to this multiple. Streets, spaces and room heights were referenced to eye level (approximately 1.6 m above the eyes), making people feel comfortable and not oppressed when walking along the streets, turning walking in the city into a pleasant leisurely experience.
To eliminate the view that industrial concrete is dull and monotonous, Perret developed various cement surfaces: textured concrete created by chiselling and washing; and different mixes and post-treatments show different warm and cool colour tones; all to give cement a more lively feel. Houses are not only for shelter from the wind and rain, but also for experiencing the beauty of sunsets and stars. Numerous large windows and a dual-direction design maximise natural light and ventilation.
The reconstruction lasted all the way until 1964 and the city has since continued to develop itself as a full industrial port and became the largest container port of France. Perret would continue to participate in post-war reconstruction of Marseille.
This reconstruction not only brought back homes to the citizens of Le Havre, it also restored lost pride and glory. The reconstruction has become one of the most celebrated examples of 20th-century architecture. The consistency of the urban plan, combined with the scale of the project, created a coherent architectural ensemble rarely seen in modern cities. The result is a city that feels simultaneously monumental and functional, reflecting both modernist ideals and classical architectural order.m
As a result Perret's work was recognised as a major exemplary model for city restoration and is honoured with a WHS inscription in 2005.
Toponymy
Le Havre simply means 'the haven' in Old French.
See
City centre (Centre-ville)
As afore-mentioned, the city was extremely regular and is divided into blocks of multiples of 6.24m, in a sense reminds me of the game SimCity. Within the city, only the City Hall (Hôtel de Ville) and the Saint Joseph Church (Église Saint-Joseph) were personally designed by Perret. The diagonal main road that parallels the western coastline is Boulevard François 1er.
The entire Le Havre’s cultural heritage lies in its urban landscape. Perret’s reconstruction emphasised spacious boulevards, open squares, and strong visual axes that link the city to the surroundings, especially the sea. This planning philosophy reflects a broader post-war belief that modern cities should prioritise light, air, and accessibility.
The east-west thoroughfare is Avenue Foch, which leads to the beach Porte Océane along the west coast, is one of the widest avenues in Europe. Lined with uniform apartment blocks and opening towards the coastline, the avenue demonstrates how architecture and urban planning were used to create a sense of order and civic pride in the aftermath of destruction.
Town Hall (Hôtel de Ville)
The original site before the bombing sat the old city with a Châteauesque style. The City Hall was designed by Perret in the modernist using reinforced concrete in 1953. When it was constructed, it drew lots of criticisms as locals wanted a replica of the old city hall, and that the tower on the west side was considered too American.
The tower now has an observation deck at the top and from there one can understand Perret's signature architectural style very clearly.
Place Oscar Niemeyer
Nestled in the regular grid of Le Havre stands the unofficial icon of the city, Place Oscar Niemeyer. The complex was designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer (né Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho) during the 1970s. The big tower, nicknamed The Volcano (Le Volcan) is a 1200-seater auditorium plus a 500-seater cinema. The smaller volcano, which looks more like a crater to me, is a 500-seat hall. The two buildings are connected by a library, museum, art gallery.
From the top, however, the two volcanoes plus the library complex and courtyard are shaped like a dove, which contrasts with the surrounding highly standardised Perret's system.
Maison du Patrimoine
Perret's former atelier are now turned into a tiny museum which serves as a gallery of Perret's architectural work and Le Havre urban planning. It is located in one of the corners of the city centre. In fact the museum is remodelled after the real showroom used by Perret to convince the locals that life under concrete is good: spacious, brightly-lit and futuristic!
It is noteworthy that Le Corbusier (né Charles Jeanneret-Gris) was amongst the many young architects who worked in Perret's architectural firm in the early 20th century. He went on to become one of the greatest and most influential architects in history.
Saint Joseph Church (Église Saint-Joseph)
One of the most iconic buildings in Le Havre is Saint-Joseph Church, designed by Perret himself and completed in 1957. The church stands as both a place of worship and a memorial to those who died during the war. With this in mind, the church features more like a cenotaph than any traditional church with a remarkable 107-m tower rising above the city. The tower is visible from the sea and serving as a solid lighthouse for sailors approaching the harbour.
The interior of the church is equally remarkable, as it looks like a theatre or concert hall. Light filters through thousands of coloured glass panes arranged around the tower, creating a luminous atmosphere that changes throughout the day. The church is widely regarded as a masterpiece of modern religious architecture.
Fortress corner (Coin du Fort)
One of the main activities of Le Havre is to take a very short funicular ride (only 0.8 km) to the top of a small hill and take hill view of the city, as above. The location of the viewpoint is called the Fortress corner (Coin du Fort), which was a former fortress.
Eat and Drink
Seafood platter (Plateau de fruits de mer)
Le Havre is by the seaside and naturally seafood platter (plateau de fruits de mer) is one of those French gastronomical dishes that one would savour.
This is the humongous platter we had in the famous restaurant Taverne Paillette.
Travel Suggestions and Logistics
We came from the cruise and from the cruise port it is a short ten-minute walk into the city. The entire city, at least the main city centre is totally walkable. The city deserves a full-day visit.
UNESCO Inscriptions
The city of Le Havre, on the English Channel in Normandy, was severely bombed during the Second World War. The destroyed area was rebuilt according to the plan of a team headed by Auguste Perret, from 1945 to 1964. The site forms the administrative, commercial and cultural centre of Le Havre. Le Havre is exceptional among many reconstructed cities for its unity and integrity. It combines a reflection of the earlier pattern of the town and its extant historic structures with the new ideas of town planning and construction technology. It is an outstanding post-war example of urban planning and architecture based on the unity of methodology and the use of prefabrication, the systematic utilization of a modular grid, and the innovative exploitation of the potential of concrete.
The gastronomic meal of the French is a customary social practice for celebrating important moments in the lives of individuals and groups, such as births, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, achievements and reunions. It is a festive meal bringing people together for an occasion to enjoy the art of good eating and drinking. The gastronomic meal emphasizes togetherness, the pleasure of taste, and the balance between human beings and the products of nature. Important elements include the careful selection of dishes from a constantly growing repertoire of recipes; the purchase of good, preferably local products whose flavours go well together; the pairing of food with wine; the setting of a beautiful table; and specific actions during consumption, such as smelling and tasting items at the table. The gastronomic meal should respect a fixed structure, commencing with an apéritif (drinks before the meal) and ending with liqueurs, containing in between at least four successive courses, namely a starter, fish and/or meat with vegetables, cheese and dessert. Individuals called gastronomes who possess deep knowledge of the tradition and preserve its memory watch over the living practice of the rites, thus contributing to their oral and/or written transmission, in particular to younger generations. The gastronomic meal draws circles of family and friends closer together and, more generally, strengthens social ties.
The baguette is the most popular kind of bread enjoyed and consumed in France throughout the year. The traditional production process entails weighing and mixing the ingredients, kneading, fermentation, dividing, relaxing, manually shaping, second fermentation, marking the dough with shallow cuts (the baker’s signature) and baking. Unlike other loaves, the baguette is made with only four ingredients (flour, water, salt and leaven and/or yeast) from which each baker obtains a unique product. Baguettes require specific knowledge and techniques: they are baked throughout the day in small batches and the outcomes vary according to the temperature and humidity. They also generate modes of consumption and social practices that differentiate them from other types of bread, such as daily visits to bakeries to purchase the loaves and specific display racks to match their long shape. Their crisp crust and chewy texture result in a specific sensory experience. The baguette is consumed in many contexts, including during family meals, in restaurants, and in work and school cafeterias. The production process is primarily transmitted through work-based training, combining school courses with work experience in a bakery. This apprenticeship enables future bakers to acquire the necessary knowledge of the ingredients, tools and process.
References
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