The Havre Letters — Georges Perec wrote about Le Havre in the context of his broader work on memory and place. His essays on the reconstruction city capture the strange double quality of a place that was deliberately built to look old while being entirely new.
Georges Perec: A Life in Words by David Bellos — a biography of the French author who was shaped partly by Normandy and by the wartime losses that the rebuilt Le Havre represents. Not about the city directly, but essential context for understanding why the reconstruction mattered.
Boudin by Himself — the painter Eugène Boudin, closely associated with Le Havre and Honfleur, wrote prolifically about painting the coast. His journals and letters, collected in several editions, give a vivid picture of the light and atmosphere of the Seine estuary that the MuMa's collection makes tangible.
Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan — not set in Le Havre, but Sagan captures the restless energy of post-war French youth, the same generation that grew up in the rebuilt concrete cities of Perret and his contemporaries. Reading it alongside a visit to the Perret district adds a layer of human texture.