  We describe the construction and general features of VIPERS, the VIMOS Public
Extragalactic Redshift Survey. This `Large Programme' has been using the ESO
VLT with the aim of building a spectroscopic sample of ~100,000 galaxies with
i_{AB}<22.5 and 0.5<z<1.5. The survey covers a total area of ~24 deg^2 within
the CFHTLS-Wide W1 and W4 fields. VIPERS is designed to address a broad range
of problems in large-scale structure and galaxy evolution, thanks to a unique
combination of volume (~ 5 x 10^7 h^{-3} Mpc^3) and sampling rate (~ 40%),
comparable to state-of-the-art surveys of the local Universe, together with
extensive multi-band optical and near-infrared photometry. Here we present the
survey design, the selection of the source catalogue and the development of the
spectroscopic observations. We discuss in detail the overall selection function
that results from the combination of the different constituents of the project.
This includes the masks arising from the parent photometric sample and the
spectroscopic instrumental footprint, together with the weights needed to
account for the sampling and the success rates of the observations. Using the
catalogue of 53,608 galaxy redshifts composing the forthcoming VIPERS Public
Data Release 1 (PDR-1), we provide a first assessment of the quality of the
spectroscopic data. Benefiting from the combination of size and detailed
sampling of this dataset, we conclude by presenting a map showing in
unprecedented detail the large-scale distribution of galaxies between 5 and 8
billion years ago. [abridged]
