Every design for Le Havre

Le Havre is known above all for its port, the busiest on France's northern coast and the country's largest for containers, and for the bold concrete city that rose after the Second World War.

There is a strong feeling of memory here. King Francis I founded the town and its harbour, and it grew rich on Atlantic trade, including the slave trade, before the age of the great ocean liners. In 1944 bombing destroyed much of the centre, and the firm of Auguste Perret rebuilt it in concrete with straight streets and calm, rational blocks; UNESCO later recognised that reconstruction as World Heritage. Inside the Appartement témoin Perret you can see how families lived in those new flats. The Musée d'Art Moderne André Malraux holds one of the country's richest Impressionist collections, while the Maison de l'Armateur, the shipowner's house, recalls the merchant past.

The Havrais have weathered war, industrial crisis and reinvention, and they remain rooted in the sea and in work. Return to Le Havre and the wind off the Channel tells you that you are home.