LE HAVRE, France’s second-biggest commercial port, is not one of the most picturesque but it does offer excellent shopping and dining out.
It is served by P&O Portsmouth, which offers up to three crossings a day. Because of the duration of the journey – 5hrs 30mins in day time – it is worth getting a few extra hours in the town by opting for an overnight sailing the day before.
This gets you into Le Harve at 7am French time, leaving ample time for shopping, before taking the 3.15pm sailing back to Portsmouth.
A more relaxing choice is to stay a night or two and take the early-morning ferry home. The Hotel de Bordeaux, featured in Bridge Travel Service’s Self-Drive programme, costs £103 for two nights including ferry crossing, and is rightfully considered the best choice in town.
Le Havre is a big town, so it does take time to find your bearings. The easiest choice is to head for a shopping centre – there is a big out-of-town mall with many shops including an Auchan hypermarket, while the new Espace Coty commercial centre, on Rue Cassimir Perrier close to the town hall, has established itself among the locals within a month of opening.
There is plenty of parking in Le Havre, but much of it is on street, and therefore limited to 2hrs – which is another good reason for shopping in the out-of-town mall, with its ample parking spaces.
If there is time after the shopping, and the weather is half-way decent, there is a pebble beach popular with the locals for kite-flying and skateboarding.
Le Havre’s famous attraction is the Malraux Museum. A glass-and concrete structure – quite pleasant to look at from the outside – it houses work by the artists Boudin, Monet and Dufy among collections of paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries.
It is also worth visiting the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Dating back to 1575, this is one of few buildings in Le Havre that survived the Allied bombing in the Second World War while the area all around it was destroyed.
For anyone staying a full day, other attractions include the Etretat cliffs, which are 17 miles from Le Havre, and the ancient fishing port of Honfleur, 12 miles away.
Port check: by Jane Archer