Le Havre (UK /l h vrr/;[3] French pronunciation: [l v] ( listen)) is an

urban French commune and city in the Seine-Maritime department in the

Normandy region of northwestern France. It is situated on the right bank of the
estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux.
Caux
Modern Le Havre remains deeply influenced by its employment and maritime
traditions. Its port is the second largest in France, after that of Marseille
Marseille, for total
traffic, and the largest French container port. The name Le Havre means "the
harbour" or "the port". Its inhabitants are known as Havrais or Havraises
Havraises.[4]
Administratively the commune is located
loc
in the Upper Normandy region and, with
Dieppe,, is one of the two sub-prefectures
sub
of the Seine-Maritime department. Le
Havre is the capital of the canton and since 1974 has been the see of the diocese of
Le Havre.
Le Havre is the most populous commune of Upper Normandy, althoug
although the total
population of the greater Le Havre conurbation is smaller than that of Rouen. It is
also the second largest subprefecture in France (after Reims).
The city and port were founded by the King Francis I of France
rance in 1517. Economic
development in the Early modern period was hampered by religious wars
wars, conflicts
with the English, epidemics, and storms. It was from the end of the 18th century
that Le Havre started growing and the port took off first with the slave trade then
other international trade. After the 1944 bombings
bombin the firm of Auguste Perret
began to rebuild the city in concrete. The oil, chemical, and automotive industries
were dynamic during the Trente Glorieuses (postwar boom) but the 1970s marked
the end of the golden age of ocean liners and the beginning of the economic crisis:
the population declined, unemployment increased and remains at a high level
today. Changes in years 1990
19902000
2000 were numerous. The right won the municipal
elections and committed the city to the path of reconversion, seeking to develop
the service sector and new industries (Aeronautics,
(
Wind turbines
turbines). The Port 2000
project increased the container capacity to compete with ports
ports of northern Europe,
transformed the southern districts of the city, and ocean liners returned. In 2005
UNESCO inscribed the central city of Le Havre as a World Heritage Site.
Site The
Andr Malraux Modern Art Museum is the second of France for the number of
impressionist paintings.

For a long time Le Havre has exploited the strengths of its coastal location but also
suffered from its relative isolation. This is why the accessibility of the city has
been improved with the harbour highway A131 (E05) which links Le Havre to the
A13 autoroute over Tancarville Bridge. The city is one hour from Rouen and one
and a half-hour from le-de-France.[29] More recently the A29 autoroute (E44) has
connected Le Havre to the north of France and passes over the Normandy Bridge
which makes Amiens (in the north-east) two hours away and Caen (in the southwest) one hour.
The TER network was modernized with the creation of the LER line in 2001 and
direct services to Fcamp in 2005. Thirteen Corail trains of the Paris-Le Havre line
link stations at Braut-Beuzeville, Yvetot, and Rouen, with Paris Saint-Lazare
station.[29] In addition there is a TGV daily service to Le Havre: it has connected
the city to Marseille since December 2004 serving Rouen, Mantes-la-Jolie,
Versailles, Massy, Lyon, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, and Saint Charles station in
Marseilles.[29]
No direct rail link connects Le Havre and Caen yet many projects known as the
"Southwest Line" to link Le Havre to the left bank of the Seine downstream from
Rouen, near the estuary of the river, were studied in the second half of the 19th
century and the beginning of the 20th century but none have been realized due to
lack of political will and strong opposition from Rouen port authorities.[citation needed]
By public transport it is necessary to go to Rouen by train or bus (using No. 20
Green Bus). There is a Gray Coach to Etretat and Fcamp and there is VTNI for
destinations in the Seine valley and Rouen who provide inter-urban services on
behalf of the Department of Seine-Maritime. Finally, the company AirPlus
provides a shuttle service to the train stations and airports of Paris.
A Ferry (LD Lines) in the port of Le Havre.
For air transport, there is Le Havre Octeville Airport which is located 5 km (3 mi)
north of Le Havre at the town of Octeville-sur-Mer and managed by CODAH.
The main destination is the Transport hub of Lyon. Many holiday destinations are
offered each year (Tunisia, Balearic Islands, Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria, etc.)
through local travel agencies that charter aircraft.[verification needed] There is also the
Flying club Jean Maridor at the airport.
The Channel maritime links with Portsmouth in southern England with P&O
Ferries ended on 30 September 2005 to be taken over by LD Lines who have

changed the configuration. Two services to Portsmouth are provided daily[29] from
the Terminal de la Citadelle. The link to Ireland was moved to the port of
Cherbourg.
Crossing times to Portsmouth vary from five hours and thirty minutes to eight
hours.[30] Popular alternative routes going to areas close to Le Havre include
Newhaven to Dieppe, and Poole to Cherbourg.
n 2009, the birth rate was 14.2 per thousand and the mortality rate was 9.4 per
thousand: even though the Rate of natural increase is positive it does not
compensate for the clearly negative Net migration rate.[44] In 2009 19% of Le
Havre's population was under 15 years old and 40% were under 29 years old which
was above the average for metropolitan France.[100] 18.4% of men and 25.6% of
women were over 60 years old.[100] The population is mainly concentrated in the
city centre and Cte-Ormeaux.[44] The foreign population is estimated at 8,525
persons or 4.8% of the population.[101] 12,148 immigrants live in Havre, or 6.8% of
the urban population.[102] Most have North African (5060) or African (3114)
origins.[103]
With the economic changes that have affected the city, the Professions and Socioprofessional categories (PCS) have changed dramatically since the 1980s: between
1982 and 1999, the number of workers has declined by about a third (10,593),
their share of the active labour force was 16% in 1982 and 12.5% in 1999.[104] The
population of workers is concentrated in the southern suburbs close to the port and
the industrial zone.[44] At the same time the numbers of executives and intellectual
professions increased by 24.5%, which is explained in part by the creation and
development of the University of Le Havre. In 2009 the city had a lower
proportion of managers and intellectual occupations than the national average
(4.2% against 6.7%).[105] The proportion of workers (15.9%) was one point higher
than the national average.[105] Going from 13.5% to 11.7% of the labour force, the
rate of unemployment has decreased between 1999 and 2009. However, it remains
higher than in the rest of the country.[106] The proportion Le Havre people in shortterm employment (CDD and interim work) is higher than the national average.[107]
Finally, the proportion of Le Havre people with a degree from higher education
dramatically increased from about 21% in 1999 to 32.1% in 2009[100] against
24.5% for metropolitan France.[108] However, this proportion has increased since
2009.

The city of Le Havre has some of the oldest sports clubs in France: the Le Havre
Rowing Society (1838),[132] the Regatta Society of Le Havre (1838), and Le Havre
Athletic Club (1872), doyen of French football and rugby clubs.[133][134][135]
The city also hosted the sailing events for the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics,
respectively.
Le Havre is dominated by three professional sports teams: the first is the Le Havre
AC football team who played in Ligue 1 for the last time in 20082009 and is
currently in Ligue 2. Its training centre, which is well-reputed for having trained
international French players Vikash Dhorasoo, Julien Faubert, Jean-Alain
Boumsong, Lassana Diarra, and also Steve Mandanda who is consistently ranked
in the top ten in France. The second major sports team is Saint Thomas Basketball
who represent the city in LNB Pro A. Thirdly the HAC women's team who play in
the first division with many international players in its ranks. The team won their
first major national title, the Coupe de France for women's handball in 2006. Le
Havre Rugby athletic club plays in Fdrale 3 (equivalent to 5th division). The
Hockey Club of Le Havre played at the fourth level nationally (Division 3) for the
20082009 season. The team is nicknamed the "Dock's du Havre".[136]
The maritime side of the city is found in many sports: for example, the tradition of
sailing is old. On 29 July 1840 the first French pleasure boat regatta was held.
Today, Le Havre is known as a water sports and Seaside resort. The marina can
host deepwater vessels around the clock in any weather. Built in the Interwar
period, it is now the largest in Seine-Maritime with about 1,300 moorings[137]
additional moorings were installed in the Vauban basin in 20112012.[138] The
Havraise Rowing Society has trained many rowers to a high level as Thierry
Renault. The Club Nautique Le Havrais (CNH) is the centre of mixed swimming,
synchronized swimming, and men's water polo. The Centre Nautique Paul Vatine
is the fifth largest club in the country for the number of sports licenses it holds; it
ranks second in the Division 1 of the Championship France for Catamaran
Clubs.[139]
Several major local sportsmen began their career at Le Havre: the swimmer
Hugues Duboscq was an Olympic medallist several times. In judo the French team
has two members from Le Havre: Dimitri Dragin and Baptiste Leroy. Jerome Le
Banner is a professional kick-boxer at world level who participates in the K-1
championship. Finally the navigator Paul Vatine, who was lost at sea in 1999, won
the Transat Jacques Vabre several times.

With 68.6 million tons of cargo in 2011, the port of Le Havre is the second largest
French seaport in trade volume behind that of Marseille and 50th largest port in the
world.[153] It represents 60% of total French container traffic with nearly
2.2 million Twenty-foot equivalent unit|EVP]s in 2011.[154][155] At the European
level, it is 8th largest for container traffic and 6th largest for total traffic. The Port
receives a large number of oil tankers that transported 27.5 million tonnes of crude
oil and 11.7 million tonnes of refined product in 2011.[154] Finally, 340,500
vehicles passed through the Roll-on/roll-off terminal in 2010.[155] 75 regular
shipping lines serve 500 ports around the world.[155] The largest trading partner of
the port of Le Havre is the Asian continent which alone accounts for 58% of
imports by container and 39.6% of exports.[154] The rest of the traffic is distributed
mainly to Europe and America.
Le Havre occupies the north bank of the estuary of the Seine on the Channel. Its
location is favourable for several reasons: it is on the most frequented waterway in
the world; it is the first and last port in the North Range of European ports the
largest in Europe which handles a quarter of all global maritime trade.[156] As a
deepwater port, it is accessible to all types of ships whatever their size around the
clock.[156] At the national level, Le Havre is 200 kilometres (124 mi) west of the
most populous and richest region in France: le-de-France. Since its founding in
1517 on the orders of Franois I, Le Havre has continued to grow: today it
measures 27 km (17 mi) from east to west, about 5 km (3 mi) from north to south
with an area of 10,000 hectares (24,711 acres).[156] The last big project called Port
2000 increased the handling capacity for containers.
The port provides 16,000 direct jobs[155] to the Le Havre region, to which must be
added indirect jobs in industry and transport. With approximately 3,000 employees
in 2006, the activities of distribution and warehousing provide more jobs,[157]
followed by road transport (2,420 jobs) and handling (2,319 jobs).[157]
In 2011, 715,279 passengers passed through the port of Le Havre[154] and there
were 95 visits by cruise ships carrying 185,000 passengers.[158] The port expects
110 cuise ship calls in 2012. Created in 1934, the leisure boat harbour of Le Havre
is located to the west and is the largest French boat harbour in the Channel with a
capacity of 1,160 moorings.[159] Finally, there is a small fishing port in the SaintFranois district and a Hawker centre.