The 500 Years Anniversary of Le Havre

2017 is a very special year for the harbour city of Le Havre in Normandy. 500 years earlier, the French King Francois I ordered a city and its associated harbour to be built at the mouth of the Seine river. It took a legion of Dutch engineers to dry out the swamps for it to become what is now known as Le Havre (which means “The Harbour”).. You can read more about Le Havre on our site by clicking here.

So, 500 years later, Le Havre celebrates its birth with a bang; starting on the 27th of May until mid November (though the official end date is October 8th), Le Havre has scheduled many activities, art displays and events. The town has been beautified over the last year, with many “older” buildings repainted, and several forms of art decorating this previously spartan city.

With an international tall ship race terminating at Le Havre, with the famous Jacques Vabre sail race to Brazil, with the Queen Mary II starting its trans-Atlantic voyage from here, many activities are centred around the sea. But not all…

The changes are very visible from previous years at the beach; beach huts that were always painted white are now multi-coloured (not one hut is painted alike), giving the beach front a Caribbean holiday atmosphere. This is a project accomplished by the talented Dutchman, Karel Martens.

The beach restaurants (14 of them aligned along the promenade), although not changed at their front, the back parts have all been painted by different artists. Each restaurant is completely different, with paintings like graffiti, cartoons and like above, cows.

Between the City Hall (Mairie) and the cruise ship docks lies the “Rue de Paris”. In a straight line from the City Hall, just before the water, the French artist Vincent Ganivet has built two enormous, multi-coloured, arches made out of containers.

The choice of using containers is very smart, since Le Havre is France’s biggest container harbour (and Europe’s 5th largest) with the world’s biggest containerships arriving and leaving every few hours. These giants of the sea have a welcoming home here in Le Havre.

Many of the city’s buildings have had their walls painted by artists. 22 building fronts can be seen around the city with these new looks. On the web site listed at the end of this article, you will find all the locations, and of all other items worth a visit.

The war monument located between the Oscar Niemeyer library and the large pond, the “Bassin du Commerce” (the water body where there used to be public swimming in the pond and which is currently used for sailing training) has been remodelled, and the “Bassin” now has two large water cannons, doing a one-upmanship with Geneva’s single water cannon.

All over Le Havre, Jace, a famous graffiti artist has been painting over empty and unused spaces, like electricity junction boxes, phone central switches, door ways and any part that looked bland and boring. The results? A myriad of art spread around the city. The works of art, based on a series of characters called “Gouzous” form a large citywide treasure hunt.

In the small coastal fishing boats harbour, several works of art can be found alongside the water front. These may look like graffiti, but are in fact tissue hanging from the walls.

Another initiative by the city was to install 2 photo-booths, allowing its citizens to make a free portrait photo of themselves. Some 200,000 photos are expected, and on the true date of the birth of Le Havre, 8 October, a massive poster with all 200,000 portrait photos will be shown at the Jardins Suspendu fort. It will be a time capsule of its citizens in the year 2017.

At the fabulous Saint Jospeh church, designed by August Perret himself, the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, using red twine made this incredible sculpture above the altar.

The red twine sculpture rises from the altar, up into the 103 meter high tower, illuminated by the multi-coloured stained windows; It’s an incredible sight, enhancing the already incredible church.

27th of May – Start of Activities

On Saturday, the 27th of May, will see the start of many activities:

• The inauguration of the special exhibition of the works of the world famous artist couple “Pierre et Gilles“. Gilles was born in Le Havre, so it’s an appropriate exhibition by one of its most famous children. The exhibition is called “Clair-Obscure” and it is held at the MuMa museum with some 80 works of art by the famous duo. The exhibition will be available until the 20th of August.
• Floating Cities, a collection of scale models of old steamboats (and photographs) that were THE way to travel in the old days. The expo can be found at the FrenchLines.com.
• At 18:30, starting at the City Hall (Mairie) an enormous parade, called the “Magnifik Parade“, will go from the City Hall up to the beach. The parade is made up of some 200 people wearing outrageous costumes and wigs, accompanied by live music.
• At 20:00 is the start of three concerts given at the beach, with as backdrop an enormous sculpture stage made specially by artists Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann for the 500 years (the photo below shows the construction of the sculpture).
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There are many, many, other things to see and do throughout Le Havre. Everything starts on the 27th of May, and finishes on the 8th of October.

On the 7th to the 9th of July is a worthwhile-to-see parade of enormous giants. The parade belong to the Giants of the Royal de Luxe company.

To find out more about all the things to see and do, visit the special web site for the events (in English). NOTE: Site no longer active.

Furthermore, there is a smartphone app ready to launch that will enable you to maximise your visit to this important port city. Check the link above for iPhone and Android links when the app is available.

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