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Le Havre 2020, or the story of a city that has successfully transformed


Call her “LH”

In a regional context where two big cities are already very present with Caen and Rouen, Le Havre cultivates its identity and its particularities. Those of a maritime and industrial port city today land … and sea of ​​innovation. It had a lot of ground to conquer on the urban plan, on the maritime plan, on the littoral … It knew how to transform to display today a resolutely new face.

I was sensitive to the dynamics that reigned in Le Havre and I wanted to join it. It was moving in all directions on the cultural, tourist, economic … After a passage in Germany, I wanted to return to participate in this movement.
Olivier Bouzard, Havrais and greeter

A greeter in Le Havre

The greeters are local residents who show off their city in their own way. Their audience? Locals who want to discover it differently, to know aspects that they would not necessarily have discovered by themselves …

In Le Havre, there are 17 greeters to be followed in their footsteps by some 250 people each year.
“There are people who really discover the city, who do not know contemporary architecture and the reconstruction of Le Havre”, explains Olivier Bouzard, who launched the greeters movement in the city. There are also those who want to know more than they know.

We can show them other aspects of the city that are little known such as the coastline with the beach, the old districts, the upper districts with facilities like the hanging garden … everything that makes Le Havre not that a city but also a place of leisure where there is a lot of nature …

“And then we must not forget the ancient heritage which has also survived from Le Havre in the city center, with testimonies from the 16th century to the present day”, underlines our greeter history buff.

Contagious curiosity

The magical and attractive side of Le Havre today is already the recognition by Unesco of the reconstructed city center. It moved the lines not only outside but also in the spirit of the people of Le Havre.

I think the identity of a city is built mainly on the idea that its own people have it.
Before we were a little ashamed to say that we lived in Le Havre. Today this is no longer the case.

Suddenly, there arises a curiosity from people who see that we talk about Le Havre in the media and that we talk about it positively … they say to themselves “why not come to see”, there when they come there is really this effect of surprise which then plays completely to the advantage of the city of Le Havre.

There are also events like the 500th anniversary of the city’s birth certificate. One could not dream of better to highlight the historic and current identity of the city. A nice recovery of confidence that Le Havre can have in it.
There is also the Transat Jacques Vabre, where its port and maritime identity and its history of coffee trading is highlighted and forward.
These are moments of communion for the people of Le Havre that they take over with joy but also for visitors who will first discover boats and then an entire environment around these basins with the heritage of the docks and who will go a little to beyond, to discover the heritage and the city center of Le Havre.

Containers

The container caten is a symbol.

Le Havre was generally criticized for seeing it as a concrete city and therefore a gray city. However, the assumption is already false, since the concrete used by Perret is a colored concrete which also colors itself according to the lights of the day.

The fact of having brought this caten of containers, this double chain of containers that intersect, in color, is a very important visual appeal. It marks the power of the container, this symbolic element of the port of the ultra dynamic haven.

Le Havre 2020

It’s modern. It is a city which continues to be at the forefront and which will be even more so since it has been recognized as a city of innovation by the State with the Smart Port City project whose ambition is to create the functioning of a city and a port of the future.

Edouard Philippe, ambassador

What does it say, with a certain hindsight, Olivier Bouzard:

It is clear that the Prime Minister has a personality that goes beyond Le Havre. There is a real affection for Le Havres for their former mayor despite the fact that he is not on the same political side as the majority of Le Havre who are rather left. We know that it is someone who is deeply attached to his hometown (his father was a dock worker, his mother was a teacher).

What challenges for the 2020 municipal elections in Le Havre?

When asked, our Le Havre thinks of transformation issues: “Le Havre has been in a dynamic for more than 20 years which has led to what it is today, we are in a society and a world which are changing enormously, there are issues of innovation around the city and the port, issues around the environment and the presence of many Seveso sites which also raises many questions … “

And to conclude that according to him, “We will have to answer how to make the city more pleasant to live for its inhabitants but also and more virtuous to attract even more new inhabitants”.

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