Le Havre, France

Capital City

Living in Le Havre means grappling with a heavy tax burden and persistent bureaucratic headaches. The port city of 166,687 people is the second largest in Normandy, but it has struggled to recover from WWII bombings that destroyed 12,000 homes. Brutal winter storms and a high variability of temperatures are the norm, with the absolute wind speed record reaching 112 mph. Still, Le Havre offers amenities like green spaces totaling 750 hectares, an impressive modern art museum, and a UNESCO-listed reconstructed city center. For those seeking an industrial, maritime-focused lifestyle in northern France, Le Havre may be worth considering, but the challenges of living there are not to be underestimated.