A royal port created by Francis I in 1517. An atmosphere painted by Claude Monet, in 1872. An architecture reinvented by Auguste Perret at the end of the Second World War. Le Havre celebrates its 500th anniversary from May 27 to November 5, 2017

Classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Le Havre is "The reinvented poetry of concrete", an exceptional example of avant-garde architecture combined with practicality and modernity. Le Havre is also the sea, a port, a beach, wide avenues and greenery. Situated between Mont-Saint-Michel and Étretat, it is the first European urban ensemble of the 20th century, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005. 12 km as the crow flies from Le Havre to Honfleur, the two banks of the Seine were for a long time connected only by ferry, until 1959, with the construction of the Tancarville bridge. With the inauguration of the Normandy Bridge in 1995 and the reunification of the two Normandy states in January 2016, there is now no excuse not to cross the Seine. Are you afraid of heights? We have the solution. In the summer, from Trouville, the maritime shuttles drop you off in one hour at the Le Havre marina. It's fun, smart, and an idea to sweep away the preconceived notions in a day or a weekend. Above all, do not forget the essential: Le Havre was like Trouville or Honfleur the cradle of Impressionism. With its infinitely changing skies, its blues and whites mixed with grey, time will be on its side. The stopover is, therefore, ideal to rush to the André Malraux Museum of Modern Art (MuMa), located just a stone's throw from the marina of Plaisance. If there is one appointment of the 500th anniversary of the ocean city, if there is one you can't escape, it's this one. An emblematic jewel of the reconstruction, the MuMa ("Mu" for museum, "Ma" for Malraux) will create the event twice, this summer and in the autumn

" Mu " for museum, " Ma " for Malraux..

Anchored facing the sea, the first great musée - maison of the culture built in post-war France, the MuMa, a glass cube supported by a metal structure, offers a smooth, light and transparent volume. Its majestic wooden staircase serves the collections on three levels. Featuring numerous works by Eugène Boudin, Raoul Dufy, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, the museum houses one of the most remarkable impressionist collections in France. Thanks to donations from Hélène Senn-Foulds, it became the first national museum, after the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, for its Impressionist collections

In 2004, the lady very generously offered the extraordinary collection of her grandfather, Olivier Senn, and in 2009, she once again honoured the city with her father's, Édouard's, collection. André Malraux, then Minister of Cultural Affairs, inaugurated the building on June 24, 1961. Originally a fine arts museum - house of culture, the museum was renamed the Malraux Museum in 1999, during its restructuring. On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, in 2011, it changed its name again to become the André Malraux Museum of Modern Art, abbreviated to "MuMa". This change was made in response to the desire to make the nature of the collections more visible and to highlight the museum's modernity: the flexibility of the spaces makes it possible to respond to a programme of exhibitions, concerts, lectures and shows. Remarkable: at the entrance to the esplanade, Le Signal, the work of Henri-Georges Adam, underlines the exceptional location of the building.

Pierre and Gilles: the art of portraiture between photography and painting

For the 500th anniversary, two exhibitions will highlight the city and its light. The usual boarders will then make a "small place" for the guests of honour. From May 27 to August 20, with the duo, Pierre and Gilles, (the first was born in La Roche-sur-Yon, the second in Le Havre). Famous for their baroque and pop photography, they will present a retrospective of their work in partnership with the Ixelles Museum in Brussels. An exceptional exhibition to greet the return of the child from the country

"Since the 1980s, Pierre and Gilles have embodied a highly sophisticated portrait art, between photography and painting. Seismographers of their time, they breathe a touch of humanity into the stars with fake beauty, magnify ordinary people, re-enchant the world with their superb heroes torn from mythology, the Bible, fairy tales. But above all, they make political issues resonate through perfectly orchestrated staging of daring subjects, treated with a feigned flippancy. Nourished by art, cinema - films as well as posters - and a passion for all forms of popular culture, the painted images of Pierre and Gilles are resolutely part of the contemporary world, while at the same time putting it into abyss. They have the unspeakable power to rekindle our capacity for wonder, to shake up our certainties with the strength to move us. The exhibition will bring together around 80 works from major institutions and prestigious private collections," explains Sophie Duplaix - Chief Curator at the Centre Georges Pompidou and scientific curator of the exhibition

Printing sunrise : Claude Monet comes home

From September 9th to October 8th, "Impression, soleil levant", the most famous of Claude Monet's paintings will be on display in the Le Havre museum. A nice gift to the city and to visitors from the Marmottan-Monet Museum in Paris and a return to the roots for this immense work that revolutionized painting and gave its name to Impressionism. "Impression, soleil levant" was created in Le Havre in 1872 and never returned. Le Havre and tourists will be able to contemplate this jewel, painted just a stone's throw from the MuMa, at the Hôtel de l'Amirauté, which has now disappeared. Did Monet ever think he'd come back here again?

In 1874, Monet decided to present his work at an exhibition. He will remember later: "I had sent something made in Le Havre, from my window, the sun in the mist and in the foreground a few masts of ships pointing.... I was asked the title for the catalogue, it really couldn't pass for a view of Le Havre; I answered: "Put Impression""

Purchased by a collector, the work is then resold. It appears in the catalogue under the title Impression, Sunset. Until recently, it was sometimes seen as a landscape in the morning, sometimes as a landscape at the end of the day. But over time it will also become a symbolic work, a "universal" masterpiece, retaining a part of mystery. Here, in Le Havre, more than anywhere else, thanks to this extraordinary closeness between the work and its subject, the public will be able to perceive and measure the accuracy and modernity of a reality magnified by the grace of art. Around this prestigious loan, the MuMa will bring together 35 works by five artists, created in Le Havre, recalling that the city was the scene of some of the most innovative artistic experiments of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Paintings by Boudin, Dufy, Turner, Vallotton and photographs by Le Gray will be featured.

The moments spent here will naturally make you want to continue your investigations. We invite you to join Auguste Perret's model apartment, to visit the port by boat and to get closer to the Tourist Office for all the festivities of the 500th anniversary.

Smart info

When? Le Havre is a city to be discovered in all seasons. This year, from 27 May to 5 November 2017, Le Havre offers a rich programme of exhibitions, festivities and artistic performances. A good opportunity to (re)discover the city and its evolution through this cultural and popular event. And then the exhibitions at the André Malraux Museum of Modern Art from 27 May to 8 October alone justify the escapade

Getting there. By plane, train or car (A13 - Pont de Normandie coming from Caen or/and Pont de Tancarville coming from Rouen; A 29 coming from the North).

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Useful. To best prepare his escapade.

OFFICE DE TOURISME DU HAVRE - More information on the site

MUSÉE D'ART MODERNE ANDRÉ MALRAUX - MUMA - More information on the site

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