In 2002, Cherbourg unveiled a major new attraction, La Cité de la Mer, combining a large aquarium with a visitable nuclear submarine (June to mid-Sept daily 9.30am–7pm, mid-Sept to Dec & late Jan to May daily 10am–6pm; closed 3 wks in Jan; May–Sept €13, Oct–April €11.50; www.citedelamer.com). Though the complex centres on the grand former Transatlantic ferry terminal, this is simply the ticket offices. Displays in a new building behind tell the story of underwater exploration in history and fiction, moving swiftly via Jules Verne and H.P. Lovecraft to Jacques Cousteau, pictured with his diving saucer "shaped like a giant lentil" in 1959. Separate fish tanks hold jellyfish, seahorses, and large (though sadly not giant) squid, while walkways enable you to peer into a vast cylindrical aquarium. In a dry dock alongside stands the Redoutable, France's first ballistic missile submarine. Visitors can scramble through its labyrinth of tube-like corridors and control rooms, though as the miniature nuclear power station that once powered it has been removed, there's a cavernous empty space at its heart. The cramped crew quarters will feel very familiar if you've just shared a cabin on an overnight ferry crossing, while the plush carpeting and moulded chairs in the living room are remarkably reminiscent of Elvis's Graceland.Otherwise, if you're waiting for a boat, the best way of filling time is to settle into a café or restaurant or do some last-minute shopping. Don't, however, leave your food shopping for the town. Unless you hit the Thursday market, held around rue des Halles, your best bets are the Auchan hypermarket at the junction of RN13 and N13, south of town, or the Carrefour, on the southeast corner of the Bassin du Commerce. As for walking off lunch, the only area that really encourages a ramble is over by the Basilique de la Trinité and the former town beach, now grassed over to form the "Plage Vert". Over to the south, you could alternatively climb up to Roule Fort for a view of the whole port. The fort itself contains a Musée de la Libération (May–Sept daily 10am–6pm; Oct–April Tues–Sun 9.30am–noon & 2–5.30pm; €3), with the usual dry maps and diagrams but plenty of contemporary newsreel – much of it, for once, in English – commemorating the period in 1944 when Cherbourg was briefly the busiest port in the world.
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