Le Havre, France

Country Information

Capital: Paris
Area: 680,000 sq km
Population: 63.5 million
Population growth rate: 0.68%
Median age: 39 years (total), 37 years (men), 40 years (women)
Life expectancy: 80 years (total), 76 years (men), 83 years (women)
GDP – purchasing power parity: US$1.8 trillion
GDP – per capita: US$
Industries: Machinery, chemicals, automobiles, aircraft,textiles, tourism

City Information

The Estuary of the Seine represents a territory of 3929 km² situated in the middle of the West coast. It is a concentration of about 600 000 inhabitants, of which 255 000 in the Le Havre agglomeration. The City of Le Havre is a Normandy city situated at the mouth of the Seine, built around a port open to the English Channel. The relationships that it has made throughout the world are closely connected with its maritime and port history and more than ever the ocean and international trade are at the heart of the destiny of Le Havre.

The climate of the territory is characterised by a maritime milieu : warm and humid with slightly cold winters and summers tempered by a frequent sea breeze. Average sunshine is less than 100 hours between November and February and over 200 hours from May to August. The average annual rainfall is 738.9 mm with stronger downfalls from October to December, but a not very extensive monthly range.

In 1944, the centre of Le Havre as well as the port was destroyed. The Ministry of Reconstruction and Urbanism called on the architect Auguste Perret.

Nature and architecture are truly at the centre of Le Havre tourism. In 2005, the World Heritage Committee recognised the exceptional character of the work of the architect Auguste Perret during the reconstruction, which associated the existing historic structures of the City with new concepts in matters of urbanism and construction technology.

In 1999, Le Havre obtained the labels “Seaside resort” and “nautical station”. Its deepwater yacht harbour is ranked first in the continental Channel and the closest to Paris. With 1300 moorings, its yacht harbour attracts every year more nautical tourism. Moreover, the quality of the water on the beach and coast has been certified every year since 1996 with the “blue flag”.

The Le Havre deepwater harbour is the closest to Paris and is ranked fifth European port and second French port for overall tonnage. This harbour is the top French port for foreign trade, where the bulk of traffic is seaborne.

Since 2001, Le Havre the 13th biggest city of France, has joined the circle of Cities and Countries of Art and History. In 2005, its reconstructed centre was listed amongst the UNESCO World Heritage sites to render homage to the work of Auguste Perret and to the heritage policy of the City.

The Le Havre region possesses large natural assets and ecological advantages which it is essential to protect. This advantage favours the maintenance of an ecological biodiversity with spaces suitable as the natural habitats looked for by rare or threatened species.

The fragility of the region’s estuary and the desire to correct a rather negative image associated with the industrial port activities, have led the municipality to engage in an environmental policy associating their partners and the population.

This engagement in favour of sustainable development has been formalised in an Agenda 21, officially launched on 14 December 2005 (the evaluation of the policy awarded a A++ mark). 

Le Havre must become by 2015 the port of Greater Paris and the Seine Valley the axis around which the metropolis must structure itself.

The Le Havre Profile details the city’ maritime history, cultural influences and identifies current municipal priorities for the community and the region.

Le_Havre_profile.pdf

Related Project(s)

• Sustainable Tourism