Slept late the morning after the USWNT v Sweden game to catch up and get into the time zone at last. We drove right to the shore knowing nothing about Le Havre, figured the ocean would be the main attraction in “The Harbor” city. Found a parking spot and started walking to see what we’d see.
Of course this is France so as soon as you arrive at the water front you see that Monet painted a scene here.
This Restaurant le Clapotis was at the very end of the walkway, near where we parked… we ate here three times I think. The women that served us was such a nice soul, willing to put up with our lousy French, the food was great, and you could watch the cruise ships and sailboats coming and going. The beach cabanas were opened up here and there, with the locals getting some nice rest and relaxation.
The Beach at Le Havre had plenty of people watching chairs at the bars, plenty of cabanas. This whole area had an easy older resort feel about it, without being obnoxious in any way.
A large bright white art installation decorated the beach.
Lots of boys biking and skating in this fun skate park. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t see any girls playing in this same space this day. Still tho, cool art. The art installation can be seen in the background.
As this was the day after the FIFA game the “Fan Experience” was closed, so we had no idea what this area was about. But seeing this had us keep our eyes open for something similar at the upcoming games.
The city’s “information” center had the FIFA mascot, Lettie, in the window. Evidently the world cup event was making Le Havre a destination again.
I asked the Information Center person what we should see if we could only see ONE thing in Le Havre. She told us to visit the church, Eglise St-Joseph, which was built on the ruins of the previous church that was bombed during WWII.
The lovely thing about the inside was the stained glass in the large open spire. The woman, Marguerite Huré, that designed the glass considered the position of the sun at different times of the year, and how warm and cool the light shining in would be. From Wikipedia: “Huré organized the colors based on the cardinal directions with the dead wood and red colors on the north side, green and purple to the east, golden shades to the south, and pink and orange shades to the west.” It was a remarkable way to think of the space, I thought. Definitely have a look if you find yourself in Le Havre.
This art installation with a hat tip to Le Havre’s status as a shipping port for France.
We checked out the art museum in town, as it was hot and we were craving central air.
Since this is France, the art museum was amazing. Small, but amazing. There was a show for the artist Raoul Dufy, his work was so varied, these two below were my favorites though.
The wall had a large quote from Raoul Dufy from the day before he died.
I mean, they had a collection of cows, and even these were fabulous.
I also enjoyed a selection of more stark black, white, and grey sea-faring paintings of Manet and Boudin.
After the museum we circled back to the waterfront to walk back to the car. These sailboats were moored just inside the breakwater, so many boats.
At night Le Havre had a music festival for the solstice, in a different part of town. This area seemed to be more about business and fine dining than the shore did. Lots of people were out. Gosh I miss herd immunity (I’m writing this during the pandemic.)
We had one meal in Le Havre down near the music festival, it was the one time someone at a restaurant gave us a hard time for speaking lousy French, it’s funny how that interaction sticks in your head. Especially because then we went out to hear the music the festival had to offer. Everyone, literally every band, sang in English. Here I was thinking we’d get to hear something specifically French. Nope. It was all pop and rock songs in English. I hope that waiter didn’t go listen to any of the music, he’d be pissed.
After a long day, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for our drive touring to the next game location on the next day, June 22.
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