Day 432: Exploring Le Havre

As I mentioned yesterday, this World Heritage site is a modern town rebuilt by French architect Auguste Perret in the 1950s after the centre of town was almost completely destroyed by WW2. It was all done in a unified style with reinforced concrete, but with splashes of colour and with forward thinking ideas, like tree-lined boulevards, space for trams and bicycles, and space for parking as well.

Although I say the "town", the town centre is only a fairly small area, a triangle roughly 1km on each side, and we were staying right in the centre of it. So we headed out in the morning and set to filming the points of interest we'd chosen. It was quite nice, and surprising to see a huge load of tourists around. We later realised there was a cruise ship in port disgorging German retirees.

The cathedral had survived the bombing largely intact so that was interesting, and the huge Hotel de Ville was cool as well though quite Brutalist in style. There was also a massive modernist cathedral which looked from the outside like a lighthouse - over a hundred metres high! And it's like a lighthouse inside as well, since the walls are covered in stained glass panels and the interior ends up filled with coloured light. A memorial to the 5000+ civilian victims of the bombing.

But just like that, we were all finished around lunchtime. So we retreated to our apartment with some supplies and stayed there the rest of the day. Very quiet outside now anyway as it was a Sunday afternoon. Passed the rest of the day by working and relaxing.Read more