Cherbourg-Octeville is a former commune situated at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It is a subprefecture of its department, and was officially formed when the commune of Cherbourg absorbed Octeville on 28 February 2000. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin.

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.

Country	France
Region	Normandy
Department	Manche
Canton	3 cantons
Commune	Cherbourg-en-Cotentin
Area1	14.26 km2 (5.51 sq mi)
Population (2017)	35,493
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)

Transport

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 sailings 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).

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. Frequently, cruise ships which 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.

Rail

The Paris – Cherbourg railway line, operated by Réseau Ferré de France, ends at Cherbourg railway station, it welcomes a million passengers every year. 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.

As well as a main line station there was also the Gare Maritime Transatlantique station.

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.

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.

Air

The Cherbourg – Maupertus Airport, located in Maupertus-sur-Mer, serves the city.

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.

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. 

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 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.

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.

A network of subcontractors and specialists formed around this hub through Ameris France, 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.

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.

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.

Other activities:

• Electronics
• Commerce
• Services

Education

The Engineering School of Cherbourg, on the main university campus. Cherbourg-Octeville has six high schools.

The university campus, installed on the heights of Octeville, focuses the Cherbourg School of Engineering, the IUT Cherbourg-Manche (which hosts approximately 1,000 students in initial or continuing education through four DUT departments, four pro licenses, one DU, a DCEF and a DAEU), as well as two branches of the University of Caen (UFR sciences and UFR modern foreign languages). The Pasteur hospital houses the Institute of training in nursing of Cherbourg-Octeville. The Group FIM, training service of the two chambers of commerce and industry of la Mancha, manages the school of trade and distribution, and since 2007, the Institute of promotion and marketing boating, forming alternating a fortnight of accreditation in the field of boating (shipbuilding, nautical services company, marinas, etc.).

The Institute of the Film Industry of Normandy is installed as a result of the International School of Audiovisual Creation and Realisation (EICAR) on the site of the former maritime hospital.

Cherbourg-Octeville welcomes the School of the Military Applications of Atomic Energy (EAMEA, 351 students) and the National Institute of Science and Nuclear Technology – remains of the importance of the army in the city – while the School of the Quartermasters (between 600 and 700 students) is located at Querqueville.

Health

Cherbourg-Octeville has two hospitals:

• The Pasteur Central Hospital, public, second establishment of Lower Normandy with 711 beds and places.
• The Polyclinic of the Cotentin, at the border between Octeville and Équeurdreville-Hainneville (102 beds).

The Gros Hêtre medicalised residence for elderly (a branch of the public hospital in the Cotentin) and, since 1999, the Jean-Brüder Community Health Centre are located on the territory of Octeville.

Culture and heritage

Cultural facilities

With Caen, Cherbourg-Octeville is the main cultural centre of Lower Normandy.

The city is the seat of several learned societies, including the National Academic Society of Cherbourg founded in 1755, National Society of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of Cherbourg formed in 1851, and the Artistic and Industrial society of Cherbourg, incorporated in 1871.

The vocation prioritaire du Centre régional des arts du cirque [Priority Mission of the Regional Centre of Circus Arts] (CRAC) of La Brèche, opened in October 2006, is the residence of circus troops, but instead also offers programming for the public. CRAC participates in the festival of street arts, Charivarue.

In addition, the provision of artistic education is rich, with the Film Industry Institute of Normandy, the school of fine arts and the municipal music school, labelled as a conservatory for communal influence, which has 800 registrants.

The Great Hall of the Cité de la Mer, with a space for over 6,000 people, has hosted several concerts, but it is primarily dedicated to the organisation of fairs and exhibitions. Today, the main welcoming complex of large-scale concerts is the Jean-Jaurès Centre of Équeurdreville-Hainneville.

Museums

Cherbourg has several museums.

The former home of Emmanuel Liais, mayor of Cherbourg, astronomer and explorer, houses since 1905 the Museum of Natural History and Ethnography, the oldest museum in Cherbourg, with curio cabinet, collection of stuffed animals, fossils, minerals and ethnographic objects (Egypt, Asia, Oceania, America and Africa), archaeological treasures and library science.

The Thomas-Henry Fine Arts Museum. Located in the cultural centre, at the back of the theatre, it presents paintings by French, Flemish, Spanish and Italian artists, as well as sculptures.

Other museums:

• The Museum of the War and the Liberation,
• The Cité de la Mer,
• The Point du jour.

Cinema

The cinema occupies a significant place in the life of Cherbourg. Many classics of French cinema have been filmed there, such as La Marie du port.

Festival of cinemas of Ireland and Great Britain, the Cinemovida (festival of the cinema of Spain and Latin America), and Images d’Outre-Rhin (German cinema), as well as Cin’étoiles, screenings of films outdoors in July, animate the local cultural life.

The city has a fleet of 17 permanent cinema rooms, distributed over two sites, including one labelled as Art et essai (Revival house).

• Odéon (5 rooms)
• Méga CGR (12 rooms)
• Omnia (1 room)

Gastronomy

A large fishing port, Cherbourg-Octeville offers a wide variety of fish (yellowtail, bar, plaice, mackerel, rays, red mullet, pollock, lemon sole, small-spotted catshark, etc.), crustaceans (brown crab, spider crab, lobster) and shellfish (Saint-Jacques, scallops, mussels), caught off the coast of the Cotentin peninsula. The so-called Demoiselles de Cherbourg are small lobsters.

The most traditional preparation is the matelote. Alexandre Dumas also presented the recipe of the “queue de merlan à la mode de Cherbourg “ [tail of whiting in the Cherbourg manner], with butter and oysters.

From 1464, the bakers of Cherbourg held Royal permission to develop their breads based on seawater, thus avoiding paying for the salt and the gabelle [salt tax]. On the occasion of the visit of Napoleon, they would have created folded bread, country bread ball, oval, which is folded back on itself to be cooked, thus offering a tighter bicorn-shaped sandwich which came to be called “pain Napoléon” [Napoleon bread]. 

It also benefits from the IGP of the cider of Normandy, Normandy pork and Normandy poultry. More broadly, the kitchen of Nord-Cotentin is that of Normandy, in which dairy products (butter, cream, milk, cheese, etc.) and apples (as fruit or alcohol) dominate.

Since 2010, the restaurant le Pily, of the Valognes restaurateur Pierre Marion, holds a star in the Michelin Guide.

Heritage

Civil monuments

The Italian Theatre is one of the last Italian theatres built in France (1880). It has been classified a historical monument since 1984 with its two side returns and corresponding roofing; also classified are the vestibule, the grand staircase, the hall and foyer, as well as the 13 original decorations. The ceiling is the work of Georges Clairin. With three galleries, it accommodates up to 600 spectators.

The Mouchel Fountain, named after the patron and director of the journal Le Phare de la Manche, stands at the centre of the Place Général-de-Gaulle.

The Hotel Epron de la Horie or ancient customs is located at the corner of Rue de Val-de-Saire and the wharf of the Old Arsenal. Built in 1781 by Jacques Martin Maurice, “contractor of the King’s works” in schist (cover and body of the building) and red brick (window frames), registered as a historical monument since 16 February 1965.

Other:

• The former Gare Maritime de Cherbourg is the largest French Art Deco monument.
• The hôtel Atlantique [Atlantic Hotel], opposite the maritime station, in iron and cement and in the Art Deco style.
• Statues of Themis and Minerva, Roman goddesses of justice and war respectively, of Houdon and Roland 
• The town hall was built at the beginning of the 19th century;
• The maritime hospital, a former regional hospital of the armies of René-Le-Bas, built by a decision of Napoleon III 
• The docks and Port Chantereyne are regularly brought to life by various events.

Memorials

The Equestrian Statue of Napoleon I faces the basilica, on the Place Napoléon. On the base, reads an excerpt from the Memorial of Sainte-Hélène, dated 15 July 1816: I had resolved to renew to Cherbourg the wonders of Egypt, i.e. a pyramid with central fort and a new Lake Moeris, for the outer harbour, dug into the rock.

The monument of the Duke of Berry, in the Place de la République. Completed in 1816, it consists of an obelisk of 25 ft (7.6 m) in pink granite of Flamanville, surmounting a fountain of grey granite, where four bronze lions’ heads spew water into a basin dug in the same block.

Other:

• The bust of Colonel Bricqueville, on the Quai de Caligny;
• The statue of Jean-François Millet;
• The monument to the dead of the Surcouf;

Military monuments

Cherbourg Harbour is the largest artificial harbour of the world. Built 4 km (2.5 mi) from the coast, the offshore seawall is 3.64 km (2.26 mi) long, with an average width of 100 m (330 ft) at its base and 12 m (39 ft) at its peak, and a height of 27 m (89 ft). The three sea walls cover over 6 km (3.7 mi) combined.

The fort de l’Île Pelée [fort of Pelée Island], a defensive element to the east of the sea wall. It was named fort Royal, fort National, fort Imperial, before taking the name of the island on which it was built. It served as a prison during the Revolution.

Fort du Roule (Museum of the War and Liberation) is located on the Montagne du Roule.

Religious monuments

• The company town of Chantereyne was built in 1928, until its destruction in June 1944.
• The Basilica of Sainte-Trinité, begun in the 11th century at the request of William the Conqueror, remained the only parish church of the city until the 19th century.
• The church of Notre-Dame du Roule was built at the foot of the Montagne du Roule between 1832 and 1842.
• The church of Notre-Dame-du-Vœu, begun in 1850 on subscription of the parishioners and in the Romanesque style;
• The Church of Saint-Clément was built within the quarter of the Val-de-Saire, facing the Pasteur hospital;
• The Church of Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul, on the area of Octeville, was built between 1967 and 1969 while the “grand ensemble” of Provinces was born;
• The Church of Saint-Martin of Octeville, dating from the 12th century;

Military life

During the Middle Ages, Cherbourg, a stronghold of the Cotentin peninsula, was home to a small garrison for the protection of the fortress. With the implementation of the harbour and military port, Cherbourg became a port of war at the end of the 18th century, with a large garrison.

During the 20th century, Cherbourg, a strategic point during both world wars, adapted to new threats. It then hosted a large garrison of the Navy, an artillery regiment and a Hôpital des Armées known locally as “marine hospital”.

Yet Cherbourg remained a base of the first order of the National Navy, as the seat of the Maritime Prefecture of Manche and the North Sea and of the Maritime Gendarmerie grouping of Manche. The naval base is the homeport of five patrol vessels of the Navy and the coastguard, group of the clearance divers sleeve and its building-base the Vulcain, the tug Abeille Liberté and various support vessels.

Cherbourg is also a training hub of the armed forces through the School of Military Applications of Atomic Energy (EAMEA), in charge of the joint education of military specialists in material sciences, of techniques and of nuclear safety and the École des fourriers de Querqueville, devoted to education of the officers of the three armed forces in business administration, management, human resources and the restoration to the training of specialists of the restoration of the national gendarmerie and the homes of the Navy staff.

Proposals for reform on the organization and the distribution of the French Army, presented in the spring of 2008 in the White Paper on Defence and National Security planned in the context of the French General Review of Public Policies raise the concern of civilian personnel of the defence of the city, including the construction of submarines.

Sport

The first horse race organised in Normandy took place in Cherbourg in September 1836 on the (now gone) beachfront along the boulevard maritime, at the initiative of Éphrem Houël, the officer of the stud.

Three other clubs have teams in district divisions:

• The Patronage laïque d’Octeville [Secular Patronage of Octeville] (three teams)
• The Association sportive de l’Arsenal maritime de Cherbourg [Sporting Association of the Marine Arsenal of Cherbourg] (one team)
• Gazélec Football Club (two teams)

In cycling, Cherbourg has been a city of arrival for the Tour de France on sixteen occasions.

Cherbourg regularly hosts stages of sailing competitions such as the Solitaire du Figaro, the Course de l’Europe, the Challenge Mondial Assistance, the Tour de France à la voile, and the Tall Ships’ Race. The Challenger La Manche is a professional tennis tournament held annually in Cherbourg since 1994.