Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, Manche Département, Normandy, France

🇫🇷 Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, often known as just Cherbourg, is a commune in the department of Manche, Normandy, north-western France, established on 1 January 2016. The commune takes its name from Cherbourg, the main town of the commune, and the Cotentin Peninsula. Cherbourg is an important commercial, ferry and military port on the English Channel. Cherbourg-en-Cotentin is a Maritime prefecture and sub-prefecture of Manche. Due to its union, it is the most populous commune in its department, making it the first city of the department before the Saint-Lô prefecture and the second in the region after Caen. Its urban unit is composed of three communes.

Cherbourg is protected by Cherbourg Harbour, between La Hague and Val de Saire, and the city has been a strategic position over the centuries, disputed between the English and French. Cited as one of the "keys to the kingdom" by Vauban, it became, by colossal maritime development work, a first-rate military port under the leadership of Napoleon I, and holds an arsenal of the French Navy. A stopping point for prestigious transatlantic liners in the first half of the 20th century, Cherbourg was the primary goal of US troops during the invasion of Normandy in 1944.

Along with its use as a military, fishing and yachting port, it is also a cross-Channel ferry port, with routes to the English ports of Poole and Portsmouth, the Irish ports of Rosslare Harbour and Dublin, and St Helier on Jersey. Limited by its geographical isolation from being a great commercial port, it is nonetheless an important shipbuilding centre, and a working-class city with a rural hinterland.

Geography: Location Cherbourg is located at the northern tip of the Cotentin Peninsula, in the department of Manche, of which it is a subprefecture. At the time of the 1999 census the city of Cherbourg had an area of 6.91 square km (2.668 sq mi), while the city of Octeville had an area of 7.35 km² (2.838 sq mi). The largest city in the Department of Manche, it is the result of the merger of the communes of Cherbourg and Octeville. The amalgamated city today has an area of 14.26 km² (5.506 sq mi). Cherbourg is situated at the mouth of the Divette  and at the south of the bay between Cap Lévi  to the east and Cap de La Hague to the west, Cherbourg-Octeville is 120 km (75 mi) from the English coast.

Cherbourg and Octeville-sur-Cherbourg once belonged to the deanery of La Hague, delimited by the Divette. In 1786, a part of Equeurdreville joined Cherbourg, during the construction of the port, and then in 1802, a portion of Octeville. Since 1811, the "mielles" [dunes] of Tourlaville, commune of the deanery of Saire, are integrated into the Cherbourg territory known as the quarter of Val-de-Saire where the Pasteur Hospital  and the Saint-Clement Church were built. Thus, Cherbourg-Octeville lies both in La Hague and in the Val de Saire.

Like all Chantereyne and the area of the Mielles, the Cherbourg territory was reclaimed from the sea. Built at the level of the sea, the town developed at the foot of the Roule mountain (highest point of the old town) and la Fauconnière. Octeville is a former rural municipality, composed of hamlets, whose settlement extended from the 19th century and whose territory is highly urbanised since 1950, especially around the ZUP  of the provinces and the university campus.

The bordering communes are Tourlaville to the east, Équeurdreville-Hainneville to the west, La Glacerie to the south and south-east, Martinvast to the south, and Nouainville and Sideville to the south-west.

Geology Located at the end of the Armorican Massif, Cherbourg retains traces of the geologic formation, deformed granites and metamorphic schists of the Precambrian of Hercynian orogeny by the folding of the arkoses of the Cambrian and Armorican sandstone and shale of the Ordovician. These folds result in layers of sandstone tilted 45° towards the north-east on la Fauconniere (including "La Roche qui pend" ['the hanging rock']) and the Montagne du Roule. These two cliffs are due to sea erosion in the Quaternary. The retreat of the sea then gave way to sand dunes and tidal marshes, destroyed by the urbanisation of the 17th and 19th centuries, identical to those of Collignon in Tourlaville.

These rocks in the soil have been used for centuries in several ways: Crushed granite extracted in Querqueville and arkoses of Becquet, have been used for the manufacture of rubble (moellon) and blocks squared for lintels. The greenschist, whose colour comes from chlorite and sericite, are used mainly for roofing in Nord-Cotentin, but also masonry in Cherbourg. The Armorican sandstone of the Montagne du Roule is used for rubble and rockfill. Most of the many quarries, which opened in the metropolitan area for building the harbour wall, are now closed.

Geography: Hydrography Cherbourg is bordered by the sea. The construction of the port of trade, from 1769, accompanied by the diversion of the Divette  (the mouth of which was located at the current exit of Port Chantereyne) and the Trottebec (from the territory of Tourlaville) gathered in the canal de retenue, along the Avenue de Paris and Rue du Val-de-Saire.

The streams of the Bucaille and the Fay, which watered the Croûte du Homet, disappeared in the 18th century during the construction of the military port.

Urban fabric Cherbourg originally developed on the left bank of the mouth of the Divette around the castle. Traces of the ancient fortress are rare in the modern city; the fortification was located in the area bounded by the Rue de la Marine, Quai de Caligny, the Foch, Gambetta, Albert-Mahieu and François-Lavieille streets, and La République and La Trinité squares. The city had five streets: Grande Rue, Rue de la Trinité (today, Tour-Carrée), the Rue du Nouet (to the Blé), the Rue au Fourdray and Rue Onfroy (of trade), and a dozen boëls (alleys). These five medieval streets were transformed into pedestrian streets in the 1980s. Until the destruction of the city walls, the main road called rue de-devant-le-château, was built on its west (east is bordered by ditches) with several houses with arcades, called soliers. After the dismantling of the walls, inside which lived three-fifths of the population, the city extended up to its natural boundaries at the end of the 17th century: the Divette in the east, and Chantereine stream in the west. During the 19th century, it extended to the neighbouring annexed territories of Tourlaville and Équeurdreville. Its rapid growth from the end of the 18th century was spoken of by Jean Fleury, in 1839, in that it "offers almost everywhere the appearance of a new town; the old streets occupy little space, and the others are generally large and airy, the fountains numerous […]. Cherbourg has 10 squares, 59 streets, 12 cul-de-sacs and 5 passages".

Damaged during all eras, rebuilt in piecemeal, the city has no architectural unity. Shale, extracted from the quarries of the agglomeration, is the traditional material of construction. With widespread coverage in the northern Cotentin, it is also used in Cherbourg for the walls in the city, apparent or often covered with a grayish or sometimes colourful coating. The frames are then Valognes stone (limestone), pink granite of Fermanville, or brick, and the underpinnings Armorican sandstone of the Roule and the Fauconniere. The expansion of the city from the 18th century contributed to the diversity of materials. The use of Caen stone and industrial brick was necessary under the Second Empire, while vernacular architecture disappeared gradually in these years in favour of a more homogeneous and Parisian style.

Cherbourg and its agglomeration urbanised around the ports and along the coast. With post-war reconstruction and the economic development of the Trente Glorieuses, the city is experiencing a crisis of housing due to the demographic boom, having built on the last vacant land. Indeed, a 1954 report evaluated 1,000 inhabitant families living in slums and called for 1,500 housing units. Then out of land Cité du Casino in 1957 and the Cité Fougère in 1958, then in 1959 all of the Amont-Quentin, Charcot-Spanel and Cité Chantereyne to accommodate the families of the engineers and officers of the Arsenal.

Port Chantereyne and the Mielles lands are reclaimed from the sea, the Place Divette and Boulevard Schuman are created at the site of the old fairground. However, at that time, the change mainly affected nearby villages that formed an agglomeration in less than forty years. Octeville, a dispersed habitat until the 18th century, and urbanised during the work of the port around a central street, saw the housing estate of the Provinces settle on the heights of la Fauconniere and triple its population in 20 years. Several estates also emerging at Tourlaville, La Glacerie, Querquerville and Equeurdreville, amending the physiognomy of a suburb which densified. This urbanisation resulted in the dilution of the geographic and sociological boundaries of the agglomeration resulting in the creation in 1970 of the urban community  until the merger of Cherbourg and Octeville in 2000.

Following this merger, a plan of urban renewal named "Between Land and Sea" was launched in 2002 on the quarters of Bassins, of the Amont-Quentin and the Provinces to homogenise the territory of the newly alamgamated city. The Bassins quarter, released by the channelling of the Divette and the filling of the retaining channel, is expected to profoundly transform the commercial landscape of the city, carried by the construction of a new shopping centre and the renovation of downtown. On the heights, seven HLM tower blocks are intended for demolition to improve social housing. A 3-star hotel and the relocation of the casino is also planned. At Avenue Carnot, the former Grouard warehouses must leave room for parking and a place through from the wharf from the Quai de l'Entrepôt to the Pasteur Hospital, to 180 dwellings by Presqu'île habitat and ADIM (Vinci company) then 100 extra in a second round of development.

The administrative quarters are: • Downtown, historic heart of Cherbourg, with the inner city and the districts of La Polle and the Vœu, dating from the 19th century. • The Val-de-Saire, annexed in 1811, beyond the Divette and swing-bridge. • Sud-est, corresponding to the districts of du Roule and Maupas, traditionally for workers. • The Amont Quentin-Provinces, on the heights of the city, built from the late 1950s (essentially HLM tower blocks). • Octeville-Bourg, from both sides of the Salengro and Barbusse streets. • Ouest, western part of the former municipality of Octeville.

Since 1996, Cherbourg-Octeville is covered by a sensitive urban zone on the expanded area of the Provinces.

Demography The construction of the dam and the military port has brought an important flow of workers and soldiers. Cherbourg and Octeville have seen their populations quadruple in a century. Cherbourg had 43,000 inhabitants at the beginning of the 20th century. During this century, Cherbourg lost some 15,000 inhabitants, while Octeville grew continuously, with an explosion in the 1960s and 1970s, during the construction of the housing estates.

History: Middle Ages The Cotentin, conquered by Quintus Titurius Sabinus in 56 BC, was divided between the pagus constantiensis ("County of Coutances") and the pagus coriovallensis ("County of Coriallo"), within Gallia Lugdunensis. Coriallo housed a small garrison and a castrum was built on the left bank of the Divette as an element of the Litus saxonicum, after Saxon raids at the beginning of the fourth century.

In 497, the village was sold with all of Armorica to Clovis. It was evangelised by Saint Éreptiole  in 432, then by Saint Exuperat, Saint Leonicien, and finally Saint Scubilion in 555. In 870, Saint Clair landing in Kent, was ordained priest of Cherbourg and established a hermitage in the surrounding forest.

After several Norman raids in the ninth century, Cherbourg was attached to the Duchy of Normandy along with the Cotentin, in 933, by William Longsword. The Danish King Harold moved there in 946.

In the face of English threats, Richard III of Normandy strengthened the fortifications of the castle at the same time as those of the other major strongholds of Cotentin. In 1053, the city was one of the four main cities of the duchy of William the Conqueror to receive an annuity in perpetuity for the maintenance of one hundred needy.

In 1139, during the struggle for succession to the Anglo-Norman Crown, Cherbourg fell after two months of siege to the troops of Stephen of England before being retaken in 1142 by Geoffrey of Anjou, whose wife, Empress Matilda, three years later founded the Abbaye Notre-Dame du Vœu.

During the conquest of Normandy by Philip II of France, Cherbourg fell without a fight in 1204. The city was sacked in 1284 and 1293, the abbey and the Hôtel-Dieu looted and burned, but the castle, where the population was entrenched, resisted. Following these ravages, Philip IV of France fortified the city in 1300.

Its strategic position, a key to the kingdom along with Calais as a bridgehead for invasion by the English and French, the town was much disputed during the Hundred Years' War. Having one of the strongest castles in the world according to Froissart, it changed ownership six times as a result of transactions or seats, never by force of arms. The fortress resisted the soldiers of Edward III in 1346.

In February 1354, Cherbourg was transferred by John II of France to Charles II of Navarre with the bulk of the Cotentin. The city was of Navarre from 1354 to 1378, and Charles II stayed in Cherbourg on several occasions. In 1378, the city was besieged by Charles V of France as the rest of the Norman possessions of the King of Navarre, but in vain. Navarre troops who had dropped the County of Évreux and the Cotentin were entrenched in Cherbourg, already a difficult taking, and defended it against French attacks. In June 1378, having lost ground in Normandy, Charles II of Navarre rented Cherbourg in 1378 to Richard II of England for a period of three years. Bertrand du Guesclin besieged it for six months using many machines of war, but abandoned the siege in December 1378. The King of England then refused to return the city to the Navarrese, despite the efforts of Charles II. It was only his son Charles III of Navarre who recovered it in 1393. In 1404, it was returned to Charles VI of France, in exchange for the Duchy of Nemours.

Fallen in 1418 to the hands of the English, Cherbourg, the last English possession of the Duchy of Normandy after the Battle of Formigny, was released on 12 August 1450.

On 28 April 1532, Cherbourg was visited with great fanfare by Francis I and the dauphin. At that time, Cherbourg was described by Gilles de Gouberville as a fortified town of 4,000 residents, protected by drawbridges at the three main gates which were permanently guarded and closed from sunset until dawn. Inside the city walls, the castle, itself protected by wide moats and equipped with a keep and twelve towers, was south-east of the city. Outside and to the south of the city walls, the suburb along the Divette was frequented by sailors.

Cherbourg was not affected by the wind of the Reformation that divided Normandy, consolidated and heavily guarded by Matignon Henry III thanked his defence against the troops of Montgomery, as lieutenant-general of Normandy and Governor of Cherbourg in 1578, and then marshal the following year. The bourgeois also remained loyal to Henry III and Henry IV, when Normandy was mostly held by the Catholic League.

17th to 19th century To complement the two major ports of Brest on the Atlantic Ocean and Toulon on the Mediterranean Sea, Louis XIV wished to build a new port on the side of the English Channel, facing England, in order to shelter the passing ships. In 1686, Vauban offered to strengthen the fortifications of Cherbourg, and close Cherbourg Harbour with two sea walls, but preferred La Hogue for the establishment of a major military port. Fortifications and the castle development work began the following year but were stopped by the King in December 1688, influenced by Louvois and fear of English attacks. In the absence of these fortifications, the population of Cherbourg attended to the destruction of the three ships of Admiral Tourville at the end of the Battle of La Hogue.

The commercial port dug at the current position of the place Divette between 1739 and 1742, was devastated in August 1758 by an English attack under the orders of General Bligh and Admiral Howe. During the Seven Years' War, the British briefly occupied the town after the Raid on Cherbourg in 1758. The British destroyed military buildings and warehouses before departing. With the development of a new pool of trade in 1769, Cherbourg - a longstanding commercial port of minor importance, a city without a university or cultural activity, regularly looted, and having weak relations with Paris - acquired a weight in the Cotentin which translated, on the eve of the French Revolution, by the creation of networks of sociability by the middle-class united in associations - such as the Cherbourg Royal Academic Society  in 1755 and the lodge "Faithful mason". The population increased from 800 feus (4,000 inhabitants) in Cherbourg and 95 in Octeville, around 1715, to 7,300 people in Cherbourg by 1778.

Louis XVI decided to relaunch the project of the port on the English Channel. After many delays, it was decided in 1779 to build a 4 km (2.5 mi)-long sea wall between île Pelée and the tip of Querqueville, using a method developed by Louis-Alexandre de Cessart, a pier of 90 wooden cones of 20 m (66 ft) by 20, filled with rubble, connected by iron chains. The first cone was immersed on 6 June 1784, and the King attended the launching of the ninth cone  on 22 June. But the technique did not withstand storms and was abandoned in 1788 in favour of scuttling old warships to backfill lost stones touted by La Bretonnière. However, the reduction of subsidies and the revolutionary events slowed work down, until its suspension in 1792.

First Consul Bonaparte wanted to turn Cherbourg into a major military port, for the invasion of the United Kingdom. He charged Joseph Cachin with the resumption of the work of the sea wall, the digging of military outer harbour, and the construction of the new arsenal. After a visit in 1811, Napoleon made Cherbourg a maritime prefecture, a chef-lieu of the Arrondissements of the Manche department and the seat of a court of first instance.

The work of the central sea wall, interrupted again between 1813 and 1832, ended in 1853, the east and west sea walls in 1895. The Charles X docks (begun in 1814 - 290 × 220 × 18 metres) and Napoleon III (started in 1836 - 420 × 200 × 18 m) of the military port were respectively opened on 25 August 1829, in the presence of the Dauphin, and 7 August 1858, by the Imperial couple. The work of the sea wall was concluded by the construction of the small harbour (Homet sea wall, 1899-1914 and sea wall of the Flemings, 1921–1922).

The work of the port led the intensification and spread of a modernising and developing Cherbourg, while contractors, owners, and local merchants were getting richer. Rural village housing scattered in hamlets made up around large farms (La Crespiniere, La Prevallerie, Grimesnil, La Gamacherie, etc.), connected between them and the Saint-Martin Church by a network of paths, Octeville became chef-lieu of the canton in 1801 (Decree of 23 Vendémiaire, year X) and also its population, to increase by the influx of workers who came to build the port of Cherbourg and work at the Arsenal. After the creation of the Route des Pieux (current Rue Salengro and Rue Carnot), the town was formed around an homogenised street-village then urbanising at the beginning of the 20th century.

On 16 August 1830, King Charles X, dethroned, departed into exile from the military port of Cherbourg aboard the Great Britain, leaving room for the July Monarchy. After seeing moor in its harbour Le Luxor carrying the Obelisk of Luxor in August 1833, Cherbourg welcomed the return of the remains of Napoleon to France aboard the Belle Poule. On 4 August 1858, an equestrian statue of Napoleon by the sculptor Armand Le Véel, was erected on the occasion of the visit of Napoleon III to the inauguration of the railway line from Cherbourg to Paris.

On 19 June 1864, a naval engagement in the American Civil War was held off the coast of Cherbourg: The warship of the Confederates, the CSS Alabama was sunk by the ship of the Union USS Kearsarge after two hours of fighting [see the Battle of Cherbourg (1864)], under the eye of thousands of spectators, who had arrived by train for the inauguration of the casino. Visualizing the fight from a sailboat, Manet immortalised it in The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama. In November 1984, the French Navy mine hunter Circé discovered a wreck under nearly 60 m (200 ft) of water off Cherbourg. Captain Max Guerout later confirmed the wreck to be of the CSS Alabama.

Early 20th century From 1847, the geographical and technical properties of the port of Cherbourg attracted shipping companies linking European ports to the east coast of the United States. At the end of the 1860s, the ships of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and the Hamburg America Line anchored in the harbour before crossing the Atlantic. After leaving Southampton, England, the RMS Titanic made its first stop at Cherbourg on 10 April 1912, during its maiden voyage, where an additional 274 passengers embarked. In 1913, Cherbourg received 500 ships and 70,000 passengers.

On 31 July 1909, tsar Nicholas II and French president Armand Fallières met officially in Cherbourg to reinforce the Franco-Russian Alliance.

During the First World War, traffic was completely suspended. Cherbourg became the place of arrival for equipment and the British and American troops, and for departure on leave and injuries. The military port experienced an increase in activity, and the garrison stationed at Cherbourg was reinforced. The port infrastructures were developed to receive coal and oil required for the conflict. Traffic doubled, reaching 600,000 tons in 1918.

Transatlantic transit resumed in the aftermath of the war with the British, American and Dutch transatlantic companies. To welcome the best stopovers, the Chamber of Commerce built a deep water port, a new ferry terminal, and an area dedicated to loading, unloading and storage of goods in the field of Mielles. Cherbourg became the first port of migration in Europe, and Cunard Line, White Star Line and Red Star Line companies united to build the Hôtel Atlantique [Atlantic Hotel] intended to receive emigrants before crossing. At the same time, the downtown was renovated, especially in the architectural projects of René Levesque, Drancey and René Levavasseur. However, the 1929 crisis put an end to the transatlantic peak.

Second World War During the Second World War (1939–1945), the German Army occupied north of France and fortified the coastline against invasion. As a deep-water port, Cherbourg was of strategic importance, very heavily protected against seaborne assault.

German troops arrived in the outskirts of Cherbourg on 17 June 1940, towards the end of the Battle of France. Two days later, the City Council declared the city open, and Generalmajor Erwin Rommel, commander of the 7th Panzer Division, received the surrender of the city from the hands of the maritime prefect, Vice-Admiral Jules Le Bigot who had earlier destroyed submarines under construction at the arsenal and East Fort.

Four years later, Cherbourg, the only deep-water port in the region, was the primary objective of the American troops who had landed at Utah Beach during the Battle of Normandy. The Battle of Cherbourg was required to give the Allies a point of logistic support for human resupply and material of the troops. American troops encircled the city on 21 June 1944. At the end of furious street fighting and bitter resistance from the Fort du Roule, Generalleutnant Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, Konteradmiral Walter Hennecke and 37,000 German soldiers surrendered on 26 June to Major General Joseph Lawton Collins, Commanding General (CG) of the U.S. VII Corps. After a month of demining and repairs by American and French engineers, the port, completely razed by the Germans and the bombing, welcomed the first Liberty ships and became, until the victory of 1945, the busiest port in the world, with traffic double that of New York. It was also the endpoint of the gasoline which crossed the English Channel via the underwater pipeline PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean), and the starting point of the Red Ball Express, truck transport circuit to Chartres.

Cherbourg was returned to France by the Americans on 14 October 1945. It was cited in the Order of the Army on 2 June 1948 and received the Croix de guerre with Palm.

Postwar The wartime destruction was mainly concentrated around the military port in Cherbourg but had hit 60% of Octeville. Thanks to the urgency of the port reconstruction, economic activity resumed quickly. Cherbourg, headed by former SFIO Minister René Schmitt built much social housing. The postwar boom led to the modernisation of the economy and a greater role for female employment. Under the leadership of General de Gaulle, Cherbourg became the hub of nuclear ballistic missile submarine construction from 1964, including the first, Le Redoutable, which was launched in 1967. Félix Amiot's shipyard Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie, specialised in military armaments, became famous during the Christmas of 1969 in an episode of the Cherbourg Project.

Incorporated in 1970, the Communauté urbaine de Cherbourg  gathered together Cherbourg and Octeville, La Glacerie, Tourlaville, Querqueville and Équeurdreville-Hainneville.

From the end of the 1960s, the nuclear industry emerged through the construction sites of the La Hague reprocessing plant and the Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant in addition to submarines of the DCN. A union of trade unions, left-wing activists and environmentalists, formed around the fear of the "nuclearisation" of Nord-Cotentin, crystallised in January 1979 when the Pacific Fisher landed with the first spent nuclear waste from Japan. On the eve of the 1980s, the Cherbourg agglomeration was hit by several violent social conflicts, particularly due to the closure of the Babcock factories.

Turn of the millennium The major decisions of the public authorities, on which Cherbourg has depended for many centuries, and the nuclear industry, caused a deep economic crisis in the 1990s. The Arsenal was drastically downsized, the Northern Fleet (FLONOR) moved to Brest in 1992, and the maritime hospital  closed. UIE, Burty, CMN, Socoval and Alcatel accumulated social plans or closings. Under the auspices of the urban community the agglomeration developed its academic offerings with the IUT of Cherbourg-Manche, the School of Engineers of Cherbourg and a branch of the University of Caen, which complemented INTECHMER  and the School of Fine Arts.

The new millennium began with the creation of a new commune. Cherbourg-Octeville was created on 1 March 2000 through the joining of Cherbourg and Octeville, following a local referendum within "Grand Cherbourg". The city revived its tourist and maritime identity through the Cité de la Mer and the opening to the public of the Redoubtable, and became the home of stopovers for cruises and nautical events. The urban renewal operation  "between land and sea", with an emphasis on the commercial and touristic attractiveness of the city and the Bassins Quarter, as well as the economic specialisation in boating, emerged. Meanwhile, the traditional activities of the port (passengers, freight and fishing) were in crisis.

Miscellany The Norman language writer Alfred Rossel, a native of Cherbourg, composed many songs which form part of the heritage of the region. Rossel's song "Sus la mér" ("on the sea") is often sung as a regional patriotic song. The local dialect is known as Cotentinais.

La Glacerie was named for glass factory. In 1655, Louis Lucas de Néhou built a glass factory which produced windows and mirrors for such buildings as the Galerie des Glaces and Château de Versailles. The factory in La Glacerie was destroyed by Allied bombardments in 1944 during the Normandy invasion.

Cherbourg was the first site outside the United States to be designated as an American Civil War Heritage Site by the Civil War Preservation Trust because a sea battle was fought nearby in 1864 by Union and Confederate warships. See the Battle of Cherbourg (1864).

Transport: Road Historically, Cherbourg is at the western end of Route nationale 13, which runs through the city by the "Rouges Terres" and the Avenue de Paris, from La Glacerie. In the 1990s, a deviation from the road, now European routes E03 and E46, referred traffic through La Glacerie and Tourlaville on a three-way axis from La Glacerie, to the Penesme roundabout at Tourlaville and then a dual carriageway to a roundabout located between Collignon Beach and the Port des Flamands. An extension to Cherbourg is in the works, with the doubling of the bridge over the Port des Flamands, to ensure a continuity of the dual carriageway to the commercial port in Cherbourg.

The old Route nationale 801  (reclassified as D901), which connects Cap de la Hague to Barfleur, crosses the city from east to west.

After the completion of the bypass east of the agglomeration, a western bypass project is under study, and a 'zone' corresponding to the future final route has been selected. Similarly, upgrading to a dual carriageway for access of Maupertus Airport is envisaged.

The D650 is used to connect Cherbourg to the west coast of the Cotentin peninsula. Departing from Cherbourg, the D650 takes a southwesterly direction to Les Pieux and then along to join the Côte des Isles (the Channel Islands coast) to Barneville-Carteret. In the approach to Cherbourg, this road has undergone development, in recent years, with amenities (roundabouts, traffic lights, urban development) by virtue of the peri-urbanisation of the communes in its path.

With the awarding of autoroute status to the RN13 in 2006, the work of upgrading to motorway standard between Cherbourg and Caen is being undertaken over a 10-year period. The construction work of the RN13 at the entrance of the Cherbourg agglomeration (locality Virage des Chèvres) was completed in early 2009.

Sea Cherbourg-Octeville is a port on the English Channel with a number of regular passenger and freight ferry services operating from the large modern ferry terminal and has a major artificial harbour. The following operators currently run services from the port: • Brittany Ferries to Poole (1 sailing daily) and Portsmouth (up to 2 sailings daily, summer only). • Stena Line to Rosslare (3 sailings weekly). • Irish Ferries to Dublin (2 sailings weekly). • Condor Ferries to Portsmouth (1 sailing weekly in summer only).

Cherbourg has previously had services operated by the following operators: • Stena Line to Southampton (up to 2 sailings daily). Withdrawn in 1996. • P&O Ferries to Portsmouth (up to 2 sailings daily by conventional ferry and up to 3 by fast ferry during the summer). Withdrawn in 2005 following a business review. • P&O Irish Sea to Rosslare (up to 3 sailings weekly) and Dublin (weekends only during the summer). Dublin service was withdrawn in 2004 and Rosslare service sold to Celtic Link. • HD Ferries to Guernsey and Jersey. Operated in 2007 but cancelled in 2008 due to lack of customers. • Celtic Link Ferries to Rosslare (3 sailings weekly). Service sold to Stena Line.

The port welcomes some 30 cruise ships per year including the largest, thanks to a cruise terminal built in 2006 in the Gare Maritime de Cherbourg, which had opened in 1933 on the Quai de France next to the Cité de la Mer. Frequently, cruise ships that have planned for another destination have taken refuge in the port, for protection from the frequent storms.

Conventional cargo ships berth in the eastern area of the docks on the Quai des Flamands and Quai des Mielles. During the construction of the Concorde prototypes in the 1960s, some sections built in the United Kingdom passed by ferry through Cherbourg, for transfer to Toulouse.

Transport: Rail The Paris - Cherbourg railway line, operated by Réseau Ferré de France, ends at Cherbourg railway station, which opened in 1858 and welcomes a million passengers every year. This line continued, at the beginning of the 20th century, up to the resort of Urville-Nacqueville and was complemented by the Tue-Vâques  which served from Cherbourg to Val de Saire between 1911 and 1950. Today, the Intercités Paris-Caen-Cherbourg line is the most profitable in its class with profit over €10 million per year despite numerous incidents and delays.

Regular services operate to Paris-Saint-Lazare via Caen using Intercités stock, local TER services operate from the station to Lisieux via Caen and to Rennes via Saint-Lô. Intercités services to Paris-Saint-Lazare take three hours on average.

From July 2009 to December 2010, a TGV Cherbourg – Dijon service operated, via Mantes and Roissy TGV. With one daily round-trip, it operated experimentally for three years and gave the people of Cherbourg direct access by rail to France's primary airport. The service ceased prematurely, as the minimum threshold of passenger traffic was not met.

As well as a main line station there was also the Gare Maritime Transatlantique station. This now forms part of the Cité de la mer.

Transport: Bus The Compagnie des transports de Cherbourg (CTC) was created in 1896, connecting the Place de Tourlaville and the Place du Château by a tramway  in Cherbourg, then to Urville. After the German occupation and bombardment of the tram depot, the use of buses took over, and it was not until 1962 that the network had several lines. From 1976, the Communauté urbaine de Cherbourg supported the jurisdiction of public transit. Management of the public service is delegated to Keolis, the CTC took the name of Zephir Bus in 1991.

The network covers the whole of the metropolitan area. In recent years, a night bus service has also been created.

Cherbourg-Octeville and its suburbs are also served by the Manéo departmental bus service.

Transport: Air The Cherbourg – Maupertus Airport, located in Maupertus-sur-Mer, serves the city. Its 2,440 m (8,010 ft) runway hosts charter flights. After stopping the daily service to Paris by Twin Jet, in spring 2008, a new link with Caen and Paris started with Chalair on 27 October 2008.

With 40,500 passengers in 2007, the airport had lost 30% of its commercial passengers, and 10% of its total traffic over a year.

Housing Cherbourg and Octeville have two different profiles. The first is the city centre, with varied habitat, the other a commune in suburbs, built quickly from the 1960s.

Parks and green spaces The second half of the 19th century saw the creation of many English-style gardens. The first was due to Joseph Cachin created while he was responsible for the construction of the port, a private garden and a pond near the Divette instead of the current railway line leading to the station. The temperate oceanic climate favours the naturalisation of southern and exotic plants such as palm trees, brought back by many Cherbourg sailors and explorers. Then, under the Third Republic, public gardens opened.

Today the city offers several green spaces: • The Public Garden  of 1.7 ha (4.2 acres), on the Avenue de Paris, was the first park to be offered to the population, in 1887. At the foot of the Montagne du Roule, it hosts many animals (sea lions, aviaries, deer, etc.). A commemorative site preferred by the municipality, it contains the monument to the dead inaugurated in 1924, the old portal of the Abbey of the Vœu, the bust of Jean-François Millet, and the last town bandstand. Two pavilions of angles constructed in 1889 limit the garden on the Avenue de Paris. • The Emmanuel Liais Park 1 ha (2.5 acres) is the former garden of the Mayor of Cherbourg's house, designed in 1881 and opened in 1885. Bequeathed to the city upon his death, it is very wooded and has an observation tower, a plan of water containing water lilies and other aquatic plants and two greenhouses sheltering rare plants, including a rich collection of South American plants brought back from his travels and acclimated by Liais. It is labelled as a Remarkable Garden. • The Montebello garden, opened in 1872 in the street of the same name, within the Napoleon III Quarter, was created at the initiative of the Horticultural Society of Cherbourg for its members. Open to the public since its inception, it contains bamboos, camellias and magnolias, and offers a chalet of bricks with beams. • The Park of the Château des Ravalet  12 ha (30 acres), a Cherbourg-Octeville property on the territory of Tourlaville, was developed by the Vicomte René de Tocqueville from 1872, with an English garden and a woodland. The park and the greenhouse built between 1872 and 1875, which is home to palm, banana, cactus and lianas have been open since the acquisition by the city of Cherbourg in 1935, and are classified as historical monuments since 4 March 1996. Several water bodies welcome Black Swans and the aviaries are home to rare birds. An artificial waterfall was created in 1921. • The Vallon sauvage  [wild valley] contains hedgerows, wetlands, orchards and woodland in the heart of Octeville, in a natural area of 10 ha (25 acres).

A private garden, the Botanical Garden of the Roche Fauconnière, is also listed in the inventory of Historic Monuments since 29 December 1978. Established in 1873, it was embellished over generations by the Favier family.

The commune also has allotments, managed by associations: Vallon Sauvage, Fourches, Roquettes, Saint Sauveur and Redoute, which gives free land to its members.

In 2007, the municipality was awarded four flowers in the competition of flowery towns and villages. The beautification policy, which dates from 1995, resulted in obtaining a first flower, followed by a second in 2000 and third in 2002. It relies on public gardens, heirs to a local botanical heritage of over a century, 10,000 square metres (110,000 sq ft) of flower beds and 240 ha (590 acres) of green space on events such as Le Mois des Jardins et Presqu’île en Fleurs [The Month of Gardens and Peninsula in Flowers], and the annual distribution of geraniums to the resident volunteers.

Economy: Historic At the instigation of Colbert, the guild of drapers was founded on 16 April 1668, the manufacture of cloth produced two thousand pieces per year. Two years earlier, Colbert had also promoted the introduction of the glass factory in the forest of Tourlaville.

In the 18th century, the economic resources came mainly through maritime trade, the preparation of cured meats and the harbour and breakwater works, plus a moribund textile industry. On the eve of the French Revolution, salt was imported from Le Croisic along with British grain, and Littry coal. Exports were mainly to Britain (sheets and clothes) and the West Indies (cattle and mules, fat and salted butter, salted meats, cod, linens and canvas), but also to Le Havre and La Rochelle for wood and coal. Lawful or otherwise exchanges also took place with the Channel Islands (tanbark, grain and wool). Cherbourg shipowners were absent from significant fishing, including that of cod on the banks of Newfoundland, which was a specialty of Granville. 361 workers (1764) and 69 skilled workers (1778) of the factory annually produced (1760) 2,000 fine linens in green and white strip. Cherbourg also had seven producers of starch. Opened in 1793 at the location of the current Lawton-Collins Wharf, the arsenal was moved in 1803 on a decision by Napoleon, within the project of the military port. Sailing ships were built, the first, the brig La Colombe, was launched on 27 September 1797, and then screw-propelled vessels up to the end of the 19th century. From 1898, the Arsenal specialised in the construction of submarines. The first were Le Morse and Le Narval. Since then, more than 91 vessels have been built there.

L'Annuaire de la Manche [The Yearbook of Manche] in 1829 mentioned several slate quarries in the agglomeration whose product was sometimes exported to Le Havre, two printers, two soda refineries (properties of Mr. Le Couturier and Messrs. Crenier and Co. producing approximately 600 tonnes for Ostend, Dunkirk, Rouen and Paris, Germany and Russia), a sugar refinery (Mr. Despréaux) whose 50 tonnes were sold in the English Channel, a lace factory run by four nuns on behalf of Messrs. Blod and Lange and several tanners. It is indicated that the port trade was based on exportation of mules to Réunion and the Antilles, salted meat of pigs and eggs in Britain, wine and brandies, and the import of Scandinavian, Polish and Russian wood, linseed, and hemp. But its use as a place of war hampered the development of Cherbourg as major commercial port, compared to Le Havre. Ten years later, for these exchanges, Jean Fleury  counted 225 to 230 both French and foreign, from 30 to 800 tons, ships each carrying 6 to 18 crew. He added the maritime buildings and armaments and the export of butter of La Hague, and the total annual trade was estimated at between 4 or 5 million francs, of which one million for the export of eggs to the United Kingdom, and 850 tons of salted meat.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Cherbourg was primarily a military port. The commercial port was modest, always exporting mules to the West Indies and Réunion and local food products to Britain (butter, meats, eggs, cattle, etc.), but also chemical products of soda extracted from kelp, granite from nearby quarries, and important wood and iron from Nord, tar, hemp, and food from the colonies. At this time the port embraced the transatlantic epic. Cherbourg's industry was then specialised in shipbuilding, as well as in lace-making and the manufacture of rope. The late 19th century also saw Cherbourg develop an aviation industry, through the company of Félix du Temple, taken over in 1938 by Félix Amiot, another aviation pioneer for the aerospace company of Normandy. Gradually, workers developed a particular skill in metalwork, both for the submarines of the Arsenal, for aircraft and ships of the Amiot shipyards or Babcock-Wilcox boilers.

In 1916, Nestlé introduced its first French factory in Cherbourg.

The 1960s saw a revival of the local economy through the increase in the female workforce and the decline of agricultural employment in favour of diversification of jobs and a high-tech industry. In 1960, under the leadership of Mayor Jacques Hébert, Hortson was established in the Maupas quarter. One hundred employees manufactured projectors and film cameras, particularly for the ORTF and Russian television. Redeemed, the factory specialised under the name of Thomson-CSF audiovisual in surveillance and medical cameras, then in the production of electronic circuits of computer terminals on behalf of Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie and the Arsenal. Since 1976, it has been dedicated to the production of microwave electronic devices, employing 260 workers in 1979 contracted for radars of the Mirage F1 Army Air and of the Navy Super Etendards, rising to 400 employees at the end of the 1980s, after moving in 1987 into a new modernised factory in Tourlaville. For a decade, the electronic workshop expanded, adding a production line for mobile television relays, and a workshop for mechanical surface treatment. As part of the internal restructuring of Alcatel, the site, which has 300 employees, was sold in 2002 to Sanmina-SCI, which ceased its activity in March 2008. The Compagnie industrielle des télécommunications (CIT), merged the following decade with Alcatel, it also opened an assembly plant for electronic telephone exchanges, at Querqueville in the 1960s. The unit, seen as a flagship of French industry by the new president of the Republic in 1981, was considered unnecessary after the integration of Thomson's telephony division with Alcatel in 1984 and suffered heavy redundancies from the end of the 1980s, before closing in 1997 at the end of a difficult social conflict.

Between the 1970s and 1990s, the two major projects of northern Cotentin, the La Hague reprocessing plant and the Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant, accentuated the industrial development of a city that saw a golden age through what the journalist François Simon called "industries of death", since about two thirds of the local industrial fabric was related to defence and the nuclear industry.

Cherbourg is also the cradle of the Halley family and society, which became Promodès in the 1960s (Continent  hypermarkets, Champion supermarkets). In 1999, Promodès merged with Carrefour. The old buildings of Halley House became the technical centre of the Cachin vocational school, on Avenue Aristide-Briand.

Economy: Main activities Cherbourg is the seat of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Cherbourg-Cotentin  particularly manages the airport, the fishing ports of Cherbourg and the trade, and, together with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Centre and Sud-Manche the FIM group training organisation.

Economy: Maritime sector The Cherbourg economy derives a large part of its activities from its maritime position. Cherbourg indeed has four ports: A military port, a fishing port, a port of commerce (passenger traffic and cross-border goods) and a marina.

Weakened since the 1990s, the commercial port sees the transit of 110,000 trucks to or from Ireland and Great Britain. Project Fastship, involving container transport from Philadelphia (United States) by high-speed vessels and oped for fifteen years, has been forgotten in favour of the Motorways of the Sea in the context of the Ena (Eurocoast Network Association), with Cuxhaven (Germany), Ostend (Belgium), Rosslare (Ireland) and Ferrol (Spain), with no more effect at the moment.

In recent years, the cross-Channel passenger traffic has declined, with competition from Caen-Ouistreham and the Pas-de-Calais. The withdrawal of the P&O company, which served Poole and Southampton, has left two companies with cross-Channel links: Brittany Ferries to Portsmouth and Poole and Irish Ferries to Rosslare (Ireland). In the first eleven months of 2007 compared with the same period of 2006, passenger traffic declined by 3.84% to 750,000 units, while freight fell 4.43% with 87,000 trucks landed. For comparison, the port had 1.7 million passengers and 138,000 trucks in 1995.

Property, with the Port of Caen-Ouistreham, of the joint association Ports Norman Associates, involving the Regional Council of Lower Normandy  and the Departmental Councils of Manche  and Calvados, port trade is managed by a joint company of the Chamber of commerce  and Louis Dreyfus Armateurs. The construction of a terminal dedicated to the traffic of coal from South America and destined for the United Kingdom will put an end to the haemorrhage of the activity of the port.

The fishing industry is affected by the crisis affecting the entire industry, and the port has seen its fleet decline.

Cherbourg was the first French marina by number of visitors in 2007, having 10,117 boats for 28,713 overnight stays in 2007, and the total impact estimated at €4 million for the Cherbourg agglomeration.

A tradition of local industry, shipbuilding is based on the two pillars of the DCNS Cherbourg for submarines and Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie (CMN), famous for their speedboats. This sector has been widely restructured over the past twenty years. The military arsenal saw the end of the construction of the Redoutable-class submarines and expanded its customer base, until then exclusively of the Navy, prior to being privatised in 2007. With diesel Agosta submarines, developed since 1994 for Pakistan, and the Scorpène, in collaboration with the shipyards of Cartagena, sold to Malaysia, Chile and India, 25% of the total turnover of the establishment is of foreign origin. Partnerships with Pakistan and India have concluded to make the construction term at home. The CMN, which employed 1,200 people at the beginning of the 1980s, modernised and automated, and now has 500 employees. The company diversified into large luxury yachts, without abandoning the military market, and has signed such contracts with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar through the Franco-Lebanese businessman Iskandar Safa, owner since 1992.

While these two military companies have experienced reductions in loads (the number of jobs at the Arsenal increased from 6,000 including 1,000 subcontracted, in 1988, to 2,600 including 500 subcontractors), and the companies have repositioned in the nautical industry. JMV Industries a subsidiary of CMN with 100 employees, built racing yachts. Originally hosted by CMN to build aluminium hulls designed by James Ébénistes (Saint-Laurent-de-Cuves), Allures Yachting has specialised in cruising sailboats. The Allais shipyard, of Dieppe, has established a subsidiary, ICAN, dedicated to civilian boats and pleasure craft.

A network of subcontractors and specialists formed around this hub through Ameris France (established in 1994 under the name of Cap 50 export, specialised in the research and the supply of spare parts for ships and military aircraft), the Efinor group (founded in 1988, specialising in metallurgy, nuclear decommissioning and engineering), MPH (help in project control, 140 employees). At Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, Facnor has become a global specialist of sailing reels.

The Navy employs nearly 3,000 officials in the agglomeration, especially in the context of administration (maritime prefecture), maritime safety (customs, CROSS, Abeille), logistical support of the French Navy and foreign passage, and of training.

Economy: Metallurgy Metallurgy has long represented a large source of employment in the agglomeration. Around the Arsenal and its boilermakers, several metalworking and mechanical industries were formed from the early 1900s. This is the case of the oldest business the city, the Simon Brothers company, founded in 1856, which went from being a mechanical workshop to a steam agricultural machinery manufacturer and then to an agribusiness in a half a century.

Manufacturing guns in 1870 and 1939, the company became a world leader in churns and mixers for the butter industry. Similarly, the Babcock boiler manufacturer was implanted in Cherbourg in the interwar period and closed its doors after a protracted labour dispute, in 1979. Later, the UIE began business in Cherbourg in 1973, for the construction of oil platforms, but closed in 1985.

Economy: Agri-food The food industry, essential in Lower Normandy, is not absent from the employment pool. A farm raising salmon in the harbour, abattoirs handling farmed livestock of Nord-Cotentin, and several processing companies exist. The Simon Brothers (50 employees) have supplied equipment for the cider and dairy industries for more than a century.

Economy: Electronics Alcatel had two units in the 1980s, one in Cherbourg, then Tourlaville (formerly Thomson-CSF) the other in Querqueville (Alcatel CIT). Both, regarded as flagships of the group, specialised respectively in microwave and electronic telephone exchanges. However, Alcatel decided to close the Querqueville factory in 1997, Codifur then took over part of the business with hundreds of employees. In 2002, it also offloaded the Tourlaville unit to Sanmina-SCI, which relocated its production six years later. Codifur resumed the after-sales service business of Alcatel, or 5% of the initial activity, and a few dozen employees.

Economy: Other industries Socoval, a manufacturer of menswear of the Cantoni Group from Italy, is the last textile factory of the Cotentin and employs about 100 employees, since the social plan of 2001, which resulted in the loss of about 40 employees.

Economic partners now rely on the "mastery of atmosphere", i.e. the control of contamination from industrial processes, through the Cherbourg-Normandy technopole  created in 2001. Having experience of work involving nuclear risk, it wants to transfer these skills to the food, electronics and pharmaceutical industries. Two courses have been designed for this purpose: A BTS in nuclear maintenance at the Lycee Tocqueville and a DESS in mastery of atmosphere at the Cherbourg School of Engineering.

Economy: Commerce The urban community, the main commercial centre of the Cotentin, has four hypermarkets covering 26,780 m2 (288,300 sq ft) - of which one, Carrefour (260 employees), located in the Cherbourg area, represents the third largest private employer of the commune - as well as several large specialist stores. Trade employs nearly 1,400 people in the city centre, but the decline in cross-Channel traffic has caused a big shortfall, exacerbated by the fragile local economy. Although downtown Cherbourg is the main commercial centre of the agglomeration, with 340 establishments, its dominance is lower in the urban community, when compared to Caen towards its agglomeration. Indeed, Cherbourg focuses 35% of commercial activities and 45% of retail trade in the agglomeration, against 40% and 55% for the centre of Caen respectively, particularly two-thirds of the human equipment stores against 90% in Lower Normandy's capital. Grocery chains, equipment and home appliances have left the city centre for out-of-town shopping centres. The number of fast food outlets doubled between 1995 and 2005, while the strength of the traditional catering has stagnated.

Economy: Services Cherbourg-Octeville, the largest city of the department, is the main centre for administration and services for the Cotentin. Health is an important provider of jobs with the Pasteur hospital  (470 beds, second of Lower Normandy, merged since 2006 with the Hospital of Valognes) and the Cotentin Polyclinic. The same goes for the education sector with four public and four private schools, a marine high school and aquaculture, a university campus and several graduate schools. The branches of public enterprises are also located there (EDF, with 120 officers and SNCF, with 50 officers). Public employment represents an important part with, in addition to the hospital and schools, municipal and community staff.

Business service companies are also present in computer science (Euriware, 85 employees), cleanliness (Onet, 240 employees, and Sin&Stes, 100 employees) and advertising (Adrexo, 50 employees).

Cherbourg-Octeville hosts the headquarters of France Bleu Cotentin  public radio, and the departmental daily La Presse de la Manche  (120 employees with his CES press), successor to the Libération de Cherbourg-Éclair and subsidiary of the Groupe SIPA - Ouest-France  since 1990. France 3 Normandie boasts a local editorial office in the city; Cherbourg's edition of La Manche libre  covers the agglomeration, La Hague and the Val de Saire; local television 5050 TV  has installed its headquarters and its main studio in the area.

Jobs in the construction sector are divided between Faucillion (80 employees), Eiffage (75 employees) and Colas (60 employees).

Since its opening, the Cité de la Mer is the tourist engine of Nord-Cotentin. The cruise terminal also attracts liners each year. The marina of 1,500 spaces is the first French port of call (11,000 per year). The capacity of the city was, as of 1 January 2007, 15 hotels and 429 rooms. The casino, owned by the Cogit Group is the 109th in France, with a turnover of €6.7 million.