Yet another review on Mauritius...Quatres Bornes, the posh town! (Quatre Bornes)

Member Name: diamond_sparkles

Product:	Quatre Bornes
Date:	22/07/09 (35 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice clean place!

Disadvantages: not as popular as Port-Louis (the main capital)

During my stay in Mauritius, a local friend of ours took us to Quatres-Bornes so I could pick up some paperwork from my travel agency. Mauritius is in fact separated into districts, and each district is made of either of towns or villages. Quatres-Bornes is found at the very centre of the island, in the district of Plaines Wilhems. It can be considered as one of the main towns in the island- even if it cannot be compared to the City of Port-Louis. Known as the "Flower Town", it boasts of its aristocracy and distinguished architecture which is highlighted by a vivid landscape and mountain scenery. Since we were staying in the northern part of the island, I would say that it took us around one hour by car to reach the town. I was really impressed by the natural Charm of Quatres-Bornes, and it has some nice shopping centers and stores. But like I mentioned above, it cannot be compared to Port-Louis in terms of shopping, bargains and business. However, the climate in Quatres-Bornes is lighter and cooler than at Port-Louis, and this might have to do with the climatic location of this particular town. I would describe Quatres-Bornes as a long stretch of road with shops scattered everywhere. There is also a modern and somewhat distinguished residential area in the higher Quatres-Bornes location.

Places to see:

ORCHARD TOWER
This rather old tower is among the tallest buildings of Quatres-Bornes. It is basically an indoor shopping mall with upper residential floors. I particularly loved the large underground parking lot with three storeys of full-fledged parking for your cars! The mall is made up of one supermarket, complete with food court, several jewelry shops, garment stores, several restaurants and/or cafés and a particularly posh pub which sometimes serves as a nightclub. The prices vary as per shop, but it is basically a place for everyone since there are nice cheap shops, as well as those high-garment exclusive fashion stores where one can only set foot in after having won a lottery of some kind! However, even these fashion stores could be somewhat affordable from time to time due to the small value of Mauritian rupee against GBP. Orchard Tower also holds a couple of beauty parlors, a cyber café, toilets, and a small game arcade for kids. I also noticed that it seems to be quite popular with Mauritian students because the place was packed with after-school students in the afternoon! But it was quite an interesting place to visit, even if there was nothing particularly extraordinary at Orchard Tower.


Municipality of Quatres-Bornes
While there is nothing to visit inside the actual municipality, it is quite a historical building with an interesting architecture. The front lawn is not large but it is quite clean and very green! It contains several benches where one can sit at the shade of huge trees and a large fountain that adds a very Victorian touch to everything. In addition, the yard is practically covered with large trees and plants. I guess that's why they coined Quatres-Bornes the Town of Flowers! In addition, the municipality also holds the popular Simone de Beauvoir library. It is not overly large but contains some nice books, and an upper section where you can go and relax with their wonderful collection of newspapers and magazines. I was quite surprised to see a lot of British magazines and newspapers over there!


MAARKET PLACE
The open air market of Quatres-Bornes may not be as popular, as noisy or busy as the Port Louis market but it has a charm all of its own! The trademark of this market is that it never, ever mingles clothes with vegetables and/or fruits! There are particular day where only clothing, accessories, makeup and other such items are sold, and days when you might get fruits and vegetables only. It is apparently very popular with Mauritians and as usual, if you haggle well with the sellers, you might just leave the place laden with wonderful, wonderful bargains!


FOOD:
Like everywhere else in Mauritius, there is a wide variety of food for every taste! While Quatres-Bornes does host typical food chains such as KFC or Debonairs, as well as five star restaurants, there are a couple of small, homely cafés scattered around. We had lunch at a particular place with a really catchy name (I think it was called Jango's Café!). The food was delicious, cheap and very homemade-like!


Overall, if you're ever in Mauritius, I would recommend you to drop by this posh little town. There is nothing really extraordinary about it, just a couple of nice cozy cafés, marketplace and shopping mall, but like I said, it's a nice town with a lot of charm to it!

Summary: A quaint little place to visit