Promenade Littéraire #17: Henry Miller, Le Havre, Seine-Maritime (76)

#17, Henry Miller, Saint-François. In Miller's novel Tropic of Cancer (1934) the protagonist arrives at the station in Le Havre. He climbs onto a horse-drawn cab to Saint-François, the site of most of the action in Le Havre in the book. He finds the place enchanting. Saint-François for a long time was the area of fishermen and brothels. This area is also the subject of a poem by Francis Carco and Pierre Mac Orlan's Quai des brumes, famously adapted into a Marcel Carné film with Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan. Émile Danoën wrote a book about this area: Une maison soufflée aux vents (1951). And let's not forget Kaurismäki's film Havre (2011).