The Havre Maritime Exhibition opened on the 7th of May.
Will this exhibition awaken general interest, or will it prove a local
affair simply? This is a secret of the weeks that are to follow.
Should nothing chance to discourage the general interest that surrounds
Havre, to dampen the enthusiasm of the public, or to act to the prejudice
of the exhibitors, whose very evident desire is to show nothing but
remarkable products in every line, the International Maritime Exhibition
will prove a great success.
[Illustration: THE INTERNATIONAL MARINE EXHIBITION AT HAVRE.--THE
PRINCIPAL ENTRANCE.]
The people of Havre have two points of comparison that more particularly
concern themselves: Their Maritime Exhibition of 1868, which, as far as
exhibition goes, was a complete success, is the first. The financial
results of it were not brilliant, but that was due to certain reasons upon
which it is not necessary to dwell. On the contrary, the Rouen Exhibition
of 1884 proved profitable.
The Havre Exhibition, under able management, can have only a like good
fortune. It must be said that the people of Havre would be deeply
humiliated should it prove otherwise.
A very appropriate location was selected for the Exhibition, in the busiest
quarter of the center of the city. Its circumference embraces one of the
finest docks of the port--the Commerce Dock, thus named because it could
not be finished (in 1827) except by the financial co-operation of the
shipowners and merchants of the city. For the purposes of the Exhibition,
this dock is now temporarily closed to navigation.
In the various structures, wood has been exclusively employed. The main
building, which alone has a monumental character, is Arabic in style, and
is situated in the center of Gambetta Place, over Paris Street, which here
becomes a tunnel. Two facades overlook the ends of this tunnel. A third
facade, which is much longer, fronts Commerce Dock.
The edifice is surmounted by a spherical cupola that serves as a base to a
semaphore provided with masts and rigging. On each side of the sphere there
are two pendent beacons. Wide glazed bays open in the external facades, and
allow the eye to wander to the south through Paris Street as far as to the
outer port, to the summits of Floride, and to see beyond this point the bay
of La Seine, Honfleur, and the coast of Grâce. To the north, the most
limited view has for perspective the City Hall, its garden, and the
charming coast of Ingonville.
The principal facade, that which fronts Commerce Dock, from which it is
separated solely by a garden laid out on Mâture Place, is the most
attractive and most ornamented. Here are located the restaurants, the
cafes, the music pavilion, and a few other light structures.
Internally, this portion of the Exhibition comprises a vast entertainment
hall, brilliantly and artistically decorated with tympans representing the
three principal ports of commerce--Havre, Bordeaux, and Marseilles--and
with pictures by the best marine painters. It is lighted by an immense
stained glass window which fronts Commerce Dock and the garden, and which
lets in a flood of soft light.
The galleries to the right and left, over Paris Street, are reserved for
the exhibitions of the ministers of state and of the large public
departments, and for models, specimens, plans, and drawings of war and
merchant vessels, and of pleasure boats, and for plans of port, roadstead,
and river works.
Two endless galleries run to the north and south of Commerce Dock, parallel
with Orleans Wharf on the one hand and Lamblardie Wharf on the other.
The northern gallery is connected by a foot bridge with the annex of
Commerce Place, where is located the colonial exhibition, the center of
which is occupied by a Cambodian pavilion, in which are brought together
the products of Indo-China and Algeria. For half of their extent, the two
galleries are separated from the dock by a promenade provided with seats
and covered with a roof. On this promenade, it became necessary to make
room for certain belated exhibitors whose products are not affected by the
open air.
In Commerce Dock are to be seen, floating, specimens of every ancient and
modern naval construction, French and foreign, among which are the state
convette Favorite and an English three-master converted into a cafe boat.
We find here, too, the giant and prehistoric oak of the Rhine, on board of
the Drysphore.
Commerce Dock is divided into two parts by a foot bridge, which allows the
visitors to pass from one side to the other without being compelled to
tiresomely retrace their steps.
The main entrance to the Exhibition is opposite the portico of the theater,
on Gambetta Place. A second entrance is found on Commerce Place in the
colonies annex. The others, near the center, are on Orleans Wharf, opposite
Edward Larue Street, and on Lamblardie Wharf, opposite Hospital Street and
opposite Saint Louis Street.
The garden of the Exhibition and the galleries that surround it are
illuminated at night by the electric light.--_L'Illustration._
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