Saint-Louis

Why Saint-Louis works

Saint-Louis was the capital of French West Africa for over two centuries before Dakar took the role in 1902, and its island old town on the Senegal River still carries that history in weathered ochre and pastel townhouses with wrought-iron balconies, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that feels closer in atmosphere to a faded Caribbean or New Orleans quarter than to the rest of Senegal. The Pont Faidherbe, an iron bridge built in the 1890s (partly assembled, according to local lore, from a Gustave Eiffel design originally intended for Cairo), still carries traffic across to the mainland and is one of the town's defining landmarks, especially photogenic at sunset. Guet Ndar, the narrow fishing peninsula separating the river from the Atlantic, is home to one of West Africa's largest and most concentrated pirogue fleets -- hundreds of brightly painted wooden boats crowd the beach and river, launching before dawn into surf that makes this one of the continent's most demanding traditional fishing grounds. The nearby Langue de Barbarie National Park, a slender sand spit at the river mouth, protects nesting sea turtles and vast colonies of pelicans, terns and flamingos, reachable by pirogue trip from town. Saint-Louis hosts one of Africa's most respected jazz festivals each May, drawing musicians and visitors from across the region to a town that has always styled itself as culturally apart from the capital.

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