The port city of Le Havre, founded in 1517 by François Ier, occupies a strategic location on the Seine estuary. Everywhere in this city open to the sea, you can breathe the sea air. Water, sky, light ... This is what attracted painters to Le Havre, and especially Claude Monet who painted his famous Impression, rising sun in 1872: the masterpiece that gave birth to the Impressionism. The Malraux museum also has the most beautiful impressionist collection in France after the Orsay museum in Paris. Le Havre is also an extraordinary city, 85% destroyed during the bombing of 1944 and rebuilt under the leadership of a visionary architect: Auguste Perret who gave concrete its letters of nobility. His internationally recognized work was listed in 2005 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This architectural impulse, continued by the Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer (The Volcano) and Jean Nouvel (Bains des Docks) makes Le Havre a spectacular laboratory for contemporary architecture.