Cherbourg And La Cite De La Mer

We drove on to Cherbourg, whose chief attraction for us was its La Cite de la Mer and the large Art Deco building, the Gare Maritime Transatlantique, that houses much of it. The building was originally a train station, whereby passengers, in the 1930s, could ride to Cherbourg and then board the Queen Mary or whatever vessel of their choosing. Despite our narrow interests, FWIW, Cherbourg has a large and historic harbor. It was among the chief goals of the Allies' Utah Beach and Cotentin Peninsula campaigns in WWII: to capture an intact port, especially one closer to Britain, for landing of heavy equipment but also which could become the European landfall for Operation PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean). The Allies knew they could never secure enough oil and gas in Europe to sustain their operations against the Germans, and thus--an engineering feat of the first order--they, chiefly the Brits, devised and secretly laid a pipeline from the UK to France. Under the Channel. It became operational in August, 1944, through Cherbourg, and eventually it carried on to the Rhine. Just FYI.

The Gare Maritime Transatlantique, back side view; a train station, a huge building

Further view, detail

Side view, getting more interesting

Main facade, yes, beautiful Art Deco

A bit of the interior

Ditto

Much of what La Cite de la Mer is about is exploration of the oceans; and, thus,
submarines; without paying the steep admission fee, we nonetheless got to see
several submarines and submersible exploration vessels

Thus

Including historic specimens

And France's original nuclear submarine, Le Redoubtable

Cherbourg harbor, where La Cite de la Mer is located

Thus, huge jetties with all sorts of fortresses

And thus

And thus, from the height and distance of Querqueville (next
post)