Seaport and town, Seine-Maritime département, Haute-Normandie région, northern
 France. It is on the English Channel coast and on the right bank of the Seine estuary,
 134 miles (216 km) west-northwest of Paris and 53 miles (85 km) west of Rouen by
 road.

         Le Havre was only a fishing village until 1517, when Francis I had a harbour built there
 named Havre-de-Grâce ("Haven of Grace"). Enlarged and fortified under the Cardinal
 de Richelieu and Louis XIV in the 17th century, it was adapted to accommodate bigger
 vessels under Louis XVI in the late 18th century and was further improved under
 Napoleon III in the mid-19th century. During World War II the Belgian government was
 transferred there for a short time after the fall of Antwerp and Ostend to the Germans.

        Almost three quarters of Le Havre's buildings were destroyed during World War II but
 were subsequently rebuilt. The Place de l'Hôtel de Ville in the centre is one of the most
 spacious public squares in Europe. The 16th-17th-century Church of Notre-Dame is one
 of the few surviving old buildings; although damaged during World War II, it was
 restored in the 1970s. The Church of Saint-Joseph is an unusual reinforced-concrete
 edifice. The new museum, built in 1961, houses a collection saved from the old
 museum, which was destroyed in 1944. Paintings by the 19th-century painter Eugène
 Boudin and the 20th-century artist Raoul Dufy are housed there.

Weather                                                                                                                               Transportation

Museums                                                                                                                             Hotels

         The harbour, rebuilt after World War II, was expanded in the early 1970s. Le Havre is
 the second port of France after Marseille and acts as an outport (seaward terminal for
 deep-draft vessels) of Paris. Before World War II it was one of the principal centres of
 passenger traffic with North America. This role has virtually ceased, however, because
of air travel. Regular car-ferry services run to England and Ireland. Le Havre's main
 imports are fuel oil and tropical goods (cotton, coffee). Pipelines connect the port to
 refineries east of the town and carry the refined product to the Paris region.
 Petroleum-storage facilities exist at nearby Antifer. Elsewhere, major industrialization
 efforts have been made. Le Havre's industries now include the manufacture of
 machinery and automobiles, as well as the older, traditional manufacture of rope and
 the handling of timber. Pop. (1990 prelim.) 196,000.

Amsterdam                                                                                                                                         Copenhagen
Brussels                                                                                                                                             Luxembourg