sightseeing in colonial St. Louis

St. Louis was the first French settlement in Africa, founded in 1659 on an island in the Senegal River. St. Louis expanded to the mainland and to the Langue de Barbarie (the sand barrier island where our hotel is located).  The St. Louis International Jazz Festival is famous. 

This is the main square, near one of the bridges which connects the island to the main land. Part of the original bridge, designed by M. Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame, is still in use.

Typical street scene but notice the name of the bar, spoutnik.

I am always facinated by these building that look like they won't be standing up much longer. This building was fully occupied with workshops and stores.

Most of the buildings had these lovely balconies.  It reminds me of New Orleans. Any renovations done here have to be historical accurate. 

Nalla and Marje near a lovely hotel. The island is long and narrow and you could generally see the water   in both directions. 

Another typical street scene, I took several pictures, but posted this one.  The man is putting up his hand to say--don't take my picture--I thought it was a religious thing but it seems more like a knee jerk reaction to picture taking.

The gate to the French consulate--below is the dead mouse just outside the gate.  Our guide joked, the mouse died while waiting for his visa. 

The dock area used for shipping--one of the old cranes is left standing with a plaque about the importance of the port of St.-Louis. 

Northern tip of the island, looking across to Mauritania. 

Courtyard of the Maison des Soeurs, originally housing an orphanage, then admistrative offices. Now undergoing renovation.  Building similar to the slave house on Ile de Goree, designed by the same architect. 

The colorful pirogues and the fabrics, see below, are so beautiful but surrounded by trash or rubble.

The fabric photo is a close up of the one below--where you see the surrounding of make shift stands, crumbling building, and littered with trash. 

Built as a Catholic church, now used as a mosque.  The only mosque with clock tower and bell. When it was converted to a mosque, they had to agree to only ring the bell for the call to pray--not the traditional voice. 

Colonial governor of the St. Louis

Hotel at the southern tip of the island.

Bird Sanctuary

Parc National des Oiseaux du Djoudj

Park was created in 1971, and designated a Unesco World Heritage Site 10 years later. Recognized as one of the world's 10 most important waterfowl sanctuaries.

Up to 15,000 of the great white pelicans gather on the breeding island.

Gift shop wall at the hotel next to the park. Each doorway at the hotel had a different bird painted on it.

Children at Play

We walked around the neighborhood, near the fish processing area. While most adults don't like to be photographed, the children seem to love it.  I love watching how the children seem to always engaged in play with the toys they create.

The boy was taking turns with friends driving each other around in this broken wheeled suitcase. 

They scratched a board on the cement bench and used white and black stone to make this game--it wasn't checkers but something similar.

Of course, the kids do a lot of work as well as play.

Notice his Obama shirt!

A ball offers endless play.

These boys have an actual boat--check out of the rest of the photos of boats boys have made by filling large bags with styrofoam pieces or yellow plastic jugs.  They paddle with their hands or a board.

Hotel Mermoz in St. Louis

We stayed at Hotel Mermoz, which is located on a sand barrier island, next to the island where St. Louis is located.  The island is narrow, running north and south, so it was easy to watch the sun rise over the water facing St. Louis and the sun set over the Atlantic ocean.

The hotel had lovely grounds.

This is the southern tip of the island about a 15 min. drive beyond the hotel entrance.

We drove down to the end of the island as far as we could go without a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Need I say more?

Marje, Vicki and Nalla on the patio outside our rooms. We each paid about $30 a night, for room, breakfast and dinner!  The food was great. 

The screened-in dining room is on the right.

The setting sun, a short walk to the beach from our rooms. 

Sun rise, looking across to St. Louis island, just across the street in front of the hotel. 

A dip in the pool each afternoon after returning from sightseeing became part of our routine.

Trip to St. Louis

We traveled up to St. Louis, the old colonial capital of Senegal, in a sept place (car with seven places but we rented to whole car for the four days).  We are two college friends visiting from the US, another preschool teacher, our guide Almamy, the driver.  This picture was taken in the garage of my apartment building, Thanksgiving morning as we are leaving.

We stopped to stretch our legs--the trip takes four hours--and walked along this market street.

This is white bissap, it has just been harvested, and will turn white when dried to make white bissap. 

This woman was angry at first when one of us tried to take her picture.  She shouted at the photographer and even threw one of her vegetables at her. Then, as we walked back along this market path, she came up and apologized and posed for this photograph.  

We made another stop to see what the workers were doing in the fields.  This is red bissap growing--it is called hibiscus but is different from the typical flowers that we are familar with.

Harvesting peanuts

Nalla sampling fresh peanuts. Yes, Nalla got her dress in Senegal--do you think you could find anything that colorful in the states?