After Etretat we drove on a few miles to another free
aire, atop the cliffs, at Saint Jouin
Bruneval. Next morning, we drove the dozen or so miles on into Le Havre, France's 2nd largest port city, and easily found the harbor
aire de camping-cars there. We spent the day walking Le Havre, visiting the St. Joseph Church, and the Andre Malraux Museum of Modern Art (the MUMA). Le Havre is very similar to Rotterdam, in that its central, old city was destroyed in WWII, and rebuilt along very modern lines. In the case of Le Havre, however, it was the Allies who did most of the destruction, driving the Germans from the port. The Germans, for their part, did as much as they could to destroy the port. And, in the case of Le Havre, a single architect, Auguste Perret, was hired to rebuild the central core. A devotee of straight lines, right angles, balance and harmony, and also reinforced concrete, his work won Le Havre a World Heritage Site award for its post-WWII reconstruction. Le Havre is in any case a relatively young European city, having been founded by Francois Premier in the early 1500s, after Harfleur had silted up.
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| A neighbor at Saint Jouin
Bruneval |
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| The aire in Le Havre; everything within walking distance |
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Possibly the ugliest church we have seen, the 16th-17th century Cathedrale Notre
Dame; so dark inside none of my pix worked; organ donated by Cardinal
Richelieu; I think they rebuilt this so the reinforced concrete would look good |
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| Nicely covered arcades along the Avenue de Paris |
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| War monument at the Place General de Gaulle |
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| Famous place, the Bassin de Commerce |
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Monet was from Le Havre, and his Impression, Sunrise, was painted from about this
spot; above is a similar painting by Eugene Boudin, also a local boy; we saw a lot of
Boudin at the MUMA and liked what we saw |
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| Part of a business/multimedia block; the Havrais call it "the volcano" |
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Right at ground zero now, noticing all the symmetry and right angles and
reinforced concrete |
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| Thus |
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The Mairie, or was it the Hotel de Ville; getting all dressed up because today is
July 13... |
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| World Heritage Site; very few of these are given for contemporary stuff |
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| The usual, um, interesting public sculpture |
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| Walking through the beautiful St. Roch park |
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| What Le Havre looked like in 1944-45 |
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| More apartment blocks, more symmetry |
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| This city's literary walks...promenade litteraire |
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| Nice touch |
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| Ships parked out in the Channel, awaiting their turn |
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| Ferris wheel at the plage |
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| Skate park |
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Part of the Residence de France; more gigantic apartment blocks; but actually
quite nice and affluent-looking |
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| And each one named after a different region of France |
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On Avenue Clemenceau opposite the plage, a
few pre-WWII beauties that survived |
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| Ditto |
