Taking a break

Sometimes a short day of respite is in order. Marian's workshop is now over and as she would be traveling back to Mali on Saturday, the two of us decided to do a little sightseeing of downtown Abidjan. We both wanted to see St. Paul's Cathedral and decided to go there first. One of the largest cathedrals in the world, St. Paul's was consecrated by Pope Jean-Paul II in 1980 and formally dedicated by him 5 years later. It is an impressive structure, and overlooks the Bay of Cocody. We were surprised to see so many people there on a Friday mid-morning, and it seemed that some sort of a service was in progress, making it awkward to walk around and take photos.  The place was cavernous, and we sat on pews away from the others, enjoying the air-conditioning as it was a steamy, suffocatingly humid day. It took a few minutes to discover what was going on, but we found ourselves at a funeral service ! 

We took our leave and headed for the Musée des Civilisations de Côte d'Ivoire. It was within a reasonable walking distance, but we couldn't seem to find the entrance as we circled the building. Finally locating an open side entrance, we were only then to be told by the security guards that the museum was closed due to a strike ! With some persuasion, we succeeded getting a tiny peek at the gardens, but that was as close as we were able to go.  Too bad...

The museum gardens with a creative use of old tires

So that the morning  didn't turn out to be a total washout, we headed for the Bibliothèque Nationale, as I had seen a directional sign for it. As a librarian, libraries are always of interest to me.  It, too, was but a short walk away. Just outside the gate, I noted a banner indicating an open restaurant inside, always a positive sign, only to be stopped by another guard informing us that the library staff, here also, were on strike. I mentioned that I was a librarian, and just wanted a quick peek at the library, having come a long way, and he let us in.

The Library's Eden Restaurant is open

The National Library of the Ivory Coast

A posting announcing the general strike of the National Library, to continue until the end of the month

The Eden Café

Today's menu specials

If the Wikipedia article is up-to-date, it paints a pretty depressing picture of the Library.  The children's portion (from what I could tell, peering through the windows), looked promising, and I did find an article saying that the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) did donate some 20,000 children's items to the Library in 2016, but found nothing about the current state of the remainder of the Library itself. At any rate, it was closed up like a drum, but we did find the café open as indicated. No frills, but we desperately needed something to drink, because of the oppressive humidity, and it was lunchtime.


By the time we had eaten, and made our way back to the Cathedral, the people had emptied out, and we had the opportunity  to take a few photos of the amazing stained glass windows.

As Marian was leaving the next day for Bamako, Marian, Silke, Martin and I decided to go out for pizza together that evening. To reach our destination, we took a 20 minute walk through a lovely section of town where large villas are tucked away behind imposing cement walls. 

This wall had windows but the grills were cover with vegetation

The place, called the Sweet Garden, was quite large, but at 6:45pm there were few diners. We decided on a spot outside on the back porch where the restaurant overlooked a highway. It was a bit noisy, but the view was quite pleasant, and provided an enjoyable ending to a long day.