Cherbourg-en-Cotentin is the big port at the northern tip of the Cotentin peninsula, facing the Channel with its back to the Norman bocage. Ferries, naval works, Atlantic liners, and submarine stories have all left their mark here, so the city feels more maritime than picturesque.
The headline stop is La Cité de la Mer, set in the old transatlantic maritime station and built around deep-sea exploration, Titanic history, and the nuclear submarine Le Redoutable. The harbour itself is part of the story: Cherbourg's Grande Rade is one of Europe's great artificial roadsteads, begun under the old French monarchy and pushed forward under Napoleon.
The centre has enough for a slow wander too. Sainte-Trinité Basilica, the Thomas Henry Museum, and the climb to the Liberation Museum round out a day that is more interesting than the city's ferry-port reputation suggests.