She was, of course, the result of a successive series of bigger and better French liners, beginning with the France of 1912 and continuing to the Ile de France (1927) and L'Atlantique (1931). Even the far smaller Champlain (1932) has often been called a prelude. She also drew from existing big Atlantic liners, ships such as the Bremen, Europa, Empress of Britain, Rex and Conte di Savoia. Her French creators, designers and decorators sought perfection and then, or so it would seem, went one step further.
Her purpose was distinctly threefold: To be the largest liner afloat (the first to exceed 60,000 tons and 1,000 feet in length), to be the fastest ship and, thirdly, to be an extraordinary floating center of ‘everything French’ – from food to decor to style and fashion. The French Government was very enthusiastic and subsidised much of $60 million construction cost, itself then the greatest amount paid for a passenger liner. (Comparatively, the 225,000-ton, 6,400-berth Allure of the Seas, the world's largest liner in 2013, cost $1.5 billion when built in Finland in 2010.) In buoyant foresight, her Parisian benefactors and owners realised that only the best possible image for France could result from this great ship. The Normandie succeeded in all three intentions and then even went further in terms of her almost extraordinary impact on the world in terms of decoration, dining, films, even children's toys. She was without question the most important ship and certainly the greatest and grandest of all French liners.
