Abraham and I just got back from St Louis last night, and absolutely loved the place. It’s located on a small, 2 kilometer-long island in the Senegal River between Senegal’s mainland and a peninsula. It was the original capital of French West Africa, and the first capital of Senegal and Mauritania. After 1956, however, it lost those distinctions and went into slow decline. As a result, it’s original, colonial architecture has been preserved.

Although its economy is not great, St Louis is the most important city in the northern part of Senegal. The mainland part of the city (as opposed to the island) continues to expand as people migrate from the drier towns of the interior. Tourism is also slowly growing on the island and on the beaches of the peninsula, and we ran into a fair number of foreigner — mainly French and Americans, as has been the case in Dakar. 

Abraham had a few meetings, but we still had time to do some exploring. The pace was much more relaxed than Dakar and oozes with atmosphere. It reminded us a little of New Orleans, and we kept remarking about the potential St Louis has, at least in terms of rebuilding itself and becoming an even more intriguing destination. Yellow and pink buildings abound.

The Senegal River, which surrounds the island, was constantly busy with boat activity. Fortunately, fishing was confined to the peninsula (fortunate because the smell of a fish market in Senegal is one of the smells I would like to forget).

This area around the old Governor’s Palace (now an administrative building with a surprisingly faded flag of Senegal flying over it) was particularly beautiful and surrounded by huge shade trees that were full of bats.

I ran into these kids on one of my walks. Unlike most children I ran into, they did not ask me for money. They had lots of questions for me in French (Where are you going? Where are you from? Are you going to take a picture of that boat? Will you take a picture of me). They even thanked me for taking their picture. Great kids.

Same kids, different pose.

The southern end of the island.

This is the Pont Faidherbe, which connects the island to the mainland. It was designed by Gustave Eiffel and built to span the Danube River, but was transferred to St Louis in 1897. A fun fish mural covers a wall in the foreground.

The bridge. When it opens, which is rarely nowadays, one part of it swivels open horizontally.

St Louis was the place where the “flying boats” of the 1930’s refueled on their way between Europe and South America. This is the old “Hydrobase” where it all happened. We discovered it one day when we rented bikes and rode down the Langue de Barbarie peninsula, which extends down past St Louis and separates the Atlantic Ocean and the Senegal River, where the old base is located.

Not much is left. I’m not even sure if this building was there when the hydrobase operated. I’m guessing the control tower, now rusty and disused, is original.

We rode down as far south as we could — only about 5 miles from town. We had the place to ourselves. Relaxing!

Bikes on the beach. The end of the peninsula. Just us, the waves and the breeze.

Intriguing tree back in town, just after sunset.