Paris1972-Versailles2003

So as we were by Le Havre why not update the wonderful historical Church Saint François d’Assisi in the old town near the harbor. We went for the Breton festival of St Yves and found this church by chance really. It was a nice find and we like it. Hope you enjoy the post as well as I.

Le Havre was beaten badly in WWII and has come back reborn, it is worth the detour for its marvels and the port area is tops so does the neighborhood of Saint François where I like to tell you a bit more on the Church of Saint François de Paul now call Saint François d’Assisi.  The Saint-François de Paul Church (known as Saint Francis of Assisi) is one of the oldest buildings in city center/ downtown Le Havre and one of the only survivors. It is located in the district of Saint-François, which was rebuilt in a regionalist style, which contrasts with the other quarters rebuilt  by Auguste Perret. It is a 17C Church  of rather Renaissance style.

A bit of history I like

Before the construction of the current Church, there would have been a Chapel in the Barres district (name of the district at the time), in 1524. King François I wanted to build a Church in this district dedicated to Saint Francis de Paul, a saint whom the King preferred at the time.  The construction of the Church begins in 1542, and in 1638, the Church was consecrated, although the Church was not finished. In 1687, the choir was built. The Church was originally referred to as Saint Francis of Paul, but it was replaced by Saint Francis of Assisi. In fact, this is due to the arrival of the Capuchin in 1590, who settled in the neighbourhood. Today, the Church is known as the Church of St. Francis of Assisi.

In 1793, the church was is in poor condition due to the French revolution, it had a  degraded roofing and broken stained glass. In 1802, the church was restored and rehabilitated the roof and restoration of the stained glass windows. In 1806, the roofs of the chapels were replaced by a single roof by aisle. After WWII, the church was restored and the sacristy rebuilt: In September 1954, the vaults damaged by the bombardments were completely redone. In 1955 and 1956, the porch and its bell tower are dismantled and restored with the facade refitted in place 1956. Then, all the chapels were rebuilt and, in 1961, new stained glass windows were laid.

A bit on the architecture of the Church Saint François d’Assisi of Le Havre.

The Church has a façade surmounted by a modest steeple. The walls of the church are supported by buttresses. The roof of the church forms a transept just behind the steeple; This transept was surmounted by two pinnacles dismantled after the restoration works of the 20C. The walls are pierced with large glass windows. At the back, the chorus is visible outside because its dimensions are less important than those of the nave; The bedside of the church is in the form of a hemicycle and is pierced by two glass windows. The church has only one façade which is in fact a porch of three bays and three entrance doors . The classic porch shows a slight influence of the Ogival style (Gothic). The porch is topped by a Renaissance-style steeple that takes on a Greco-Roman style.

The Interior of the church consists of a nave in three ships flanked by chapels, which extends into a chorus. The classical style is predominant, although the vaults of the aisles are of medieval styles. The main nave is covered by a plaster cradle that rests on pillars in the form of Doric columns. As for the aisles, they are arched on crossed warheads. The nave consists of four bays, plus another between nave and chorus. The Renaissance-style choir is of a more modest size. The high altar is a recent altar of neo-classical wood type. The choir has stalls and a small organ. At the bottom, in the apse, the altar with the tabernacle is surmounted by a Calvary. On the wall behind the altar there is a tapestry from the Royal Manufactory of Aubusson, offered in 1924 to the Church; Above, you can see a fresco depicting the coronation of the Virgin Mary.

Some webpages to help you plan your trip here and worth the detour are:

The Le Havre Etretat tourist office on Le Havre: https://www.lehavre-etretat-tourisme.com/en/discover/the-essentials/discover-le-havre/

The city of Le Havre on its history: https://www.lehavre.fr/ma-ville/une-ville-chargee-dhistoire

Unesco Le Havre on the Saint François neighborhood: http://unesco.lehavre.fr/fr/comprendre/lile-saint-francois

Catholic Parishes of Le Havre on the church: https://www.lehavre.catholique.fr/paroisse/paroisse-saint–de-la-mer/

There you go another off the beaten path beauty of my belle France. Worth a detour to a city , Le Havre , that deserves more after WWII. Enjoy the Church Saint François d’Assisi.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!

And let me update this older post for you and I. Several times folks tells me Le Havre is worth a visit and how can folks be wrong. It is a more modern city thanks to hosting bombs in WWII but it has a nice layout with beautiful buildings. Great shopping and food to boot, we enjoy our trips there, twice and looking forward to be back when possible. Hope you like the introductory post and do visit Le Havre is worth a detour!

This is my treat to you , Le Havre is in the department de Seine-Maritime 76 of the region of Normandie right in the mouth of the Seine river. The port is second in France for the traffic and first for containers. And yes, my container moving from FL USA  to Versailles, FR was routed thru here then truck to my home in Versailles!! 2003 get it ::)

The city center of Le Havre is an Unesco World Heritage Site!!  On weekends folks here in good weather hit for the beach on the coast or Côte d’Albâtre by going over the bridge or great Pont de Normandie (see post) and spent a few hours in Honfleur, (see posts) and in turn the folks there come over for their shopping in Le Havre!  (see other posts) Yes!!!

Many roads were done here to give easy access to the city ,  kind of an enclave pointed on the continent.  The only way I have come to Le Havre. The autoroute A131 link Le Havre to the A13  (autoroute de Normandie) by the other great bridge or Pont de Tancarville.  The autoroute A29 (autoroute des estuaires) link the city metro area to the north of France and ends at the Pont de Normandie.  The trains are from the TER and Corail network  but no direct TGV service to Paris yet.  The regular trains put the city in touch with Gare Saint Lazare-Paris, Rouen, Marseille, Mantes-la-Jolie, Versailles, Massy, Lyon-Part-Dieu, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence etc  There is a small airport Havre-Octeville at about 5 km on the town of Octeville-sur-Mer; and buses normally link the airports even Paris CDG/Orly. There is a ferry service to Portsmouth , England.  The network LIA handles the local bus with 16 lines and two tramway lines as well as two night time call  LiA de nuit.  The cable car or funiculaire allows since 1890 to link the high to the low town .

As said, the Lower city was mostly destroyed in WWII, and built afterward by the firm of Auguste Perret between 1945 and 1964; he personally directed the reconstruction of the city hall or Hôtel de Ville and the Church Saint Joseph. There is a wonderful Maison de la Culture du Havre built by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer ,known as the Volcan for it shape. Reasons  for Unesco to name it to the World Heritage list.  The northern section of the lower city has the oldest neighborhood not touch by WWII such as Danton, Saint-Vincent, Graville, Massillon, etc. with buildings in brick dating from the 19C and first half of the 20C; the shops are around wide streets and the neighborhood of the Rond-Point. The south district of the Lower city has lots of industry but also great shopping we love it just across from the train station. This is the old docks totally redone into a sport and spectacle building call the Dock Océane, and the wonderful shopping center Docks Vauban as well as expo park Docks Café, and the Les Bains de Dock designed by architect Jean Nouvel. This is a wonderful area to stay in visiting the city as we always do!

The high city has more residential areas  such as the sides or  côte, the districts of homes or the big beltway cloister of homes .  On the sides ,you have the fortresses of Sainte Adresse and Tourneville as well as the main cemetery Sainte Marie. The forts now serve civil duties with the Sainte Adresse housing the suspended garden or Jardin Suspendu and the Tourneville houses the municipal archives.

A bit of history I like

The city is old but I will give you the founding of the proper city by king François Ist in October 1517, and it grew quickly thanks to its  port in the 18C and 19C; however, WWII stop all this, and the city needed to start again…not the first time as during the wars of Religion it suffered great destruction as well. On orders of Cardinal Richelieu, governor of the city then, had built the Arsenal, basin du Roy, ramparts reinforced and a fortress built. It is at this fortress that Cardinal Mazarin have inprisoned the princes of the frond revolt such as Longueville, Conti (the current city hall of Versailles was his palace), and Condé.  Early on the reign of king Louis XIV, minister Colbert began to renovate the port infrastructures and military installations; and by 1669, opened the canal du Havre à Harfleur,aka Canal Vauban.

The Orient company or Compagnie de l’Orient  is here in 1643, and the city began to import from the Americas exotic products such as sugar, cotton, tabacco, café, and spices. The treaty of Black make the locals very rich in slave trade especially in the 18C making the city the third on this trade behind Nantes and La Rochelle.  The world awaits and they go off, by 1707, the captain Michel Dubocage explore the Pacific Ocean aboard the boat Découverte and reaches the island of Clipperton; another captain Jean Baptiste d’Aprés de Mannevillette worked for the Compagnie des indes  and cartography the coasts of India and China. In  1749 , Madame de Pompadour wants to see the sea and king Louis XV chose Le Havre to have her do this at a great costs to the city.

The French revolution brings terror and religious transformation with the Cathedral Notre Dame changed to a temple of reason….under emperor Napoléon Ist ordered the building of a fort. In the 19C, Le Havre  becomes an European leader in the history of coffee culture thanks to the arrivals of protestant German families who had acquired this technique during the Haitian revolution in the Caribbean . In the period 1850-1914 is the golden age for the city even with war of succession, Franco-Prussian war the commerce explode and the town built new modern boulevards, city hall and justice palace/courthouse as well as stock exchange/Bourse.

Before WWI ,Le Havre is the first port importing coffee in Europe, also cotton, and petroleum are important items; the boating brings in wood, wheat etc. from Northern Europe and wine and oil from the Mediterranean. The city is a major entry point for merchandise from USA and a passing point for immigration to USA. By 1889 the great maritime boulevard is built , mainly the Villa Maritime, the casino Marie-Christine b. 1910, the Rowing palace or Palais des Régates b.1906 bring about the rich and famous and the first cabin are installed in the beach.  The human toll is big in WWI to the city and it served as the rear base especially for the British navy where 1,9 million British soldiers passed by the port of Le Havre.

During WWII, the Nazis occupied Le Havre since the spring of 1940; and prepare the city for the invasion of the United Kingdom (Operation Seelôwe), making arrangement along the coast with casemates, blockhaus and batteries integrated into the Atlantic Wall. Le Havre received 132 bombardments by the Allies during the war with the most damaging coming on September 5-6 1944 with English Royal Air Force bombing the city center and the port to weakening the Nazis during operation Astonia; the  Royal Air Force did more than 2000 waves dropping about 10K tons of bombs. Le Havre was liberated by allied armies on September 12 1944.

What is there to see, plenty I said. The oldest building still standing are the Abbey of Graville, medieval is the Chapelle Saint Michel d’Ingouville; there are redone after WWII, the Cathedral Notre Dame du Havre, Church Saint François (see post) , Church of the Immaculate Conception , Hôtel Dubocage,and the Maison de l’Armateur (shipbuilder house), as well as the old courthouse or Palais de Justice. Others are the Jardin Suspendu, Fort de Tourneville, Docks Vauban, Villa Maritime, church Saint Joseph, modern arts museum or Musée d’Art Moderne André Malraux, the old museum of Havre or Musée de l’Ancien Havre, and the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle.

The Fête de la Saint-Yves at le Havre in the neighborhood or quartier of Saint-François around the church. This is the historic area of the Bretons in Le Havre. We happened to be there when the festival was going on and saw our Bagad celtic music presentation in Normandie!

The Dock Océane for expo, theater ,arts, the Les Bains de  Docks for a water park, Docks Café, and Jardin Fluvial. All of this around the places that are nice to use and some new ones like O Blé Gourmand resto a la breton norman cuisinen or old ones like Le Lafayette cafe brasserie; the whole complex is great and easily you can spent at least half a day seeing all around it. Here you have the Océane and Café expo places. webpage: https://www.dockslehavre.com/

The cinema Gaumont, the Les Bains de Docks  ,have a pool indoors, and the jardin fluvial is over 2 hectares or almost 5 acres of over  700 meters long ,all bordering the  quais de la Saône ,and de la Marne. The wonderful Docks Vauban is an excellent shopping center, we love it. The mall is closed until further notice due to the virus so check if eventually coming in , the webpage: https://www.docksvauban.com/boutiques/

We had our lunch on this occasion at a wonderful resto Bistrot du P”tit Port, highly recommended and I do this sparingly. Wonderful and the views of the ferry harbor and fish market is awesome. Great seafood with my fish soup and marmite du pêcheur are awesome. webpage: https://www.bistrotduptitport76.fr/

Some paintings of Le Havre that I like are especially illustrating the Port du Havre and the light of the mouth of the Seine river such as those by Jean-Baptiste Corot, and Gustave Courbet. The one influential and of course neighbor is Eugene Boudin with many works from the 20C; the artist even lived for a while in the city. Another great one was Claude Monet who lived in the city since 5 yrs old and painted in 1872, the Impression, soleil levant (impression of the rising sun) a portrait that gave the name to the Impressionists movement of world fame.

The city of Le Havre on what to do currently: https://www.lehavre.fr/que-faire-au-havre

The Le Havre-Etretat tourist office : https://www.lehavre-etretat-tourisme.com/en/

The Seine Maritime dept 76 tourist board on Le Havre: https://www.seine-maritime-tourisme.com/en/i-visit/10-key-places/le-havre/le-havre.php

The Normandie region tourist board on Le Havre: https://en.normandie-tourisme.fr/unmissable-sites/le-havre/

Hope you have enjoyed the introductory ride into a resistance strong city , with a lot of energy to show you the best positive mentality you can have, come back from ashes stronger than ever. See it live it, and come back to tell more about it. This is Le Havre!

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!