Le Havre prepares for 500-year anniversary

Le Havre is gearing up for its 500-year anniversary in 2017. The port and city was founded by King Francois I and is now a Unesco world heritage site.

The main anniversary activities will take place between June and October, with the programme due to be published this May. One of the highlights of the cruise calendar will be the christening of MSC Meraviglia in June and another will be the direct transatlantic sailing on Queen Mary 2 departing September 15 with 500 passengers embarking in the French port, one for every year of Le Havre’s existence.

Although much has yet to be announced some of the treats in store are the Royal de Luxe (July 6-9), a giant puppet street company along the lines of the elephant in Nantes and a tall ships’ race at the end of August. There will also be a presentation of Monet’s Impression, Sunrise at the MuMa in September. The painting is said to have given rise to the name of the Impressionist movement.

Call numbers next year are 159 so far which is a significant increase on this year’s 126 bringing about 300,000 passengers and last year’s 95. The latter suffered due to the late arrival of AIDAprima which will be a regular caller from May this year on a yearly cycle.

Valerie Conan of Le Havre Tourism commented on the rise in numbers: “I think Le Havre is becoming more and more popular. The ships are becoming bigger and bigger and we have been promoting this big event for more than three years.”

This year newcomer Royal Caribbean International’s Ovation of the Seas will call along with Disney Magic and National Geographic Orion. MSC Cruises is interporting on five calls, Costa Cruises has four repositioning turnarounds in August/September and Oceania Cruises’ Serena a full turnaround.

Le Havre has commissioned a study to be undertaken into the future of the cruise business for Le Havre.