This morning, Captain Raffaelo Musso hosted a plaque exchange ceremony onboard the MSC Musica on the occasion of the first call at Le Havre.

He welcomed Gérard Vastra, Le Havre Deputy Harbour Master who underlined the links between MSC and the port of Le Havre. Vastra offered a plaque for the ship and a medal for the Captain on behalf of the Port Authority.

During the second part of the ceremony, Agnès Firmin le Bodo, Deputy Mayor of Le Havre in charge of tourism and President of the Cruise Club raised the double love story between MSC and Le Havre both for the container traffic and for cruise activity.

In 2013 MSC will call 14 times at Le Havre, including eight times with the Opera (interporting  passengers bound for the Netherlands, England, Spain and Portugal).

Firmin le Bodo pointed out that Le Havre, listed as a world heritage, attracts more and more cruise lines and that the cruise traffic is growing with 125 calls this year (108 in 2012). She also stressed that Cruise Europe is holding its annual conference in Le Havre this year and for this reason, Jens Skrede, the managing director of Cruise Europe also took part to the ceremony. As a good sponsor of her city, Firmin le Bodo encouraged the Captain to visit Le Havre.