The Busiest City of Mauritius! (Port Louis)

Member Name: diamond_sparkles

Product:	Port Louis
Date:	18/07/09 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great bargains and wonderful places to explore!

Disadvantages: Extremely hot and noisy

Port-Louis is the capital of Mauritius, the busiest city where everything happens! I visited or passed through Port Louis several times during my stay in Mauritius. This is the place where the main offices, buildings, centers and banks are found. The harbor and cargo delivery, as well as overseas parcel delivery buildings are also located at Port-Louis. It is quite easily the most important city of Mauritius. It is furthermore one of the major tourist spot. Here are a few tourist attractions of Port-Louis:


The Caudan Waterfront:
Like I mentioned in another review, Le Caudan Waterfront is simply a very large open-air mall. It includes three cinema halls, a wine and sushi bar, two games arcade, a casino, a marina, lots of restaurants, pubs and an uncountable number of high-quality garment shop. In fact, my Mauritian friends told me that only tourists can afford to shop in the garment shops of Caudan because most of them are international brands and therefore quite expensive for the local population. The food court is quite nice, clean and inexpensive. In fact, the food court alone caters meals for every taste- pizzas, Chinese, European, Italian, Mexican or Creole food are so easily available. In addition, there are many 5-star restaurants for those looking for something more sophisticated. My favourite element at Le Caudan Waterfront is the absolutely incredible view it offers- since (as the title suggests), it is built on water, you can see past harbor, to the Flour Mills and towards open sea. The Marina is also splendid; this is where people keep their boats and I saw some really incredible boats and catamaran over there. It is also a great place for taking some really nice pictures!


The Post Office:
The POST Office you say?! Well yes. Port-Louis' central post office is a must-see for everyone. Port-Louis was actually built under the supervision of Mahé de Labourdonnais when the French colonized the island, and they used the city as their main capital, too. Therefore, most of the buildings and a couple of the roads still bear the historical architecture of French workers. The Central Post office is found inside one of these historical buildings. Any avid architect will be more than happy to feast his or her eyes on this magnificent stone building. In fact, believe it or not, the Port Louis post office has become a major spot in the city. You can always see tourists posing in front of the buildings for snaps! In addition, the post office also offers very cheap, very rapid internet service.


The Blue Penny Museum
This museum is the only museum in the whole wide world to own and exhibit a very famous and unique Mauritius Post Office stamp that dates way back to 1874. It is located in a very nice and cosy building at Le Caudan Waterfront. In addition, it also contains a very famous Paul and Virginie Statue (characters of writer Bernandin de St.Pierre), as well as numerous other rare and collectible items. I particularly liked the multi-media equipment which facilitated ease of access and made the whole tour more interesting. Since I love to shop and buy absolutely everything and anything, I also enjoyed the cute little souvenir shop, where I got a nice wooden boat sculpture to bring back home!

In addition, you can also find the famous Port-Louis Market nestled among the busy streets and buildings of the city. This is the place where you can find absolutely everything from spices, jewelry, clothes, accessories, old-fashioned straw baskets, traditional place mats, pickled chilies, postcards, among so many items. This market is also reputed for the wonderful smells of various spices and other delicacies.


It would literally be considered a very very very poor form of judgment if you visit Mauritius one day and do not go to Port Louis!

Thanks for reading!

Summary: Port Louis is every shopaholic's dream come true!