Cherbourg

Built at the end of a roadstead closed by a titanic breakwater completed in the nineteenth century, one of the largest artificial harbours in the world, Cherbourg owes its destiny to its strategic position at the tip of the Cotentin, a natural lock on the Channel. A renowned transatlantic port that saw generations of emigrants pass to America, the town also played a major role in the 1944 landings as the first major port liberated, an episode recounted by the Cité de la Mer, set in the former Art Deco maritime station and housing the largest visitable submarine in the world. Today turned towards shipbuilding, nuclear and space technologies, Cherbourg keeps a lively town centre around the Bassin du Commerce, where fishing and pleasure boats mingle at the foot of eighteenth-century buildings.

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