Description & Facts: Le Havre is a city in the northwest region of France situated on the right bank of the mouth of the Seine River as it outlets into the Bay of the Seine section of the English Channel. It is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department and the Haute-Normandie region. The inhabitants of the city are called Havrais or Havraises. It is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region and the largest sub-prefecture in France. It is also a bishop's see. Le Havre is also used in the sense of "port". The city was first called Franciscopolis, in homage to King Francis I, who took the initiative to construct the city, in addition to Le Havre (or Le Hable) de Grace, the latter term being derived from the chapel Notre-Dame-de-Grace, which existed on the site before the city's founding. The city was also dubbed the Porte Oceane, or Door to the Ocean. Architecturally, this image has been revived through the "door" that forms the frame at either end of Fochs Avenue, which comes out of the sea. In population, Le Havre ranks second of the French ports, first of the cities in Normandy, and ranks second in the metro areas of Haute-Normandie. Le Havre was honored with the Legion of Honor award on July 18, 1949. UNESCO declared the city center of Le Havre a World Heritage Site on July 15, 2005, in honoring the "innovative utilization of concrete's potential." The 133-hectare space that represents, according to UNESCO, "an exceptional example of architecture and town planning of the post-war era," is one of the rare contemporary World Heritage Sites in Europe. Le Havre was once synonymous with urban coldness and grayness. The city's inhabitants have done much to change this, and it has been marked by improvement since then. The city is spoken of now as the Brasilia of France. Le Havre's home port code is LH. Le Havre is situated in the southwest of the Pays de Caux region. The city is surrounded by the seashore of the English Channel to the west, the mouth of the Seine to the south, and the coast to the north. The Seine has, for a long time, marked a natural border between Haute-Normandie and Basse-Normandie. Thus, the city of Honfleur is, in the expression of the Havrais, "on the other coast." In order to face the city's relative enclosure, the city's connections have multiplied : the most prestigious connection is the Pont de Normandie, which connects the two banks of the Seine, and reduces traveling time between Honfleur and Le Havre to less than a quarter-hour.