Discover Senegal's former colonial towns
2024
Highlights of the trip
During your stay you can enjoy the following highlights: Culture / Heritage, Discovery, Free time.
Best times to go
The best time(s) to go is/are : Printemps, Automne, Hiver.
Where to stay - Saint-Louis ?
The map of your stay "Discover Senegal's former colonial towns"
Detail of the stay : Discover Senegal's former colonial towns
How to get there - Saint-Louis
Saint-Louis
Steps: Saint-Louis
2.5 km long and 300 m wide, the first city built by the Europeans of West Africa, Saint-Louis is worth a visit for its typically colonial architecture, with its old buildings in warm colours and their wrought iron balconies. Since 2000, the city has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Goree
Steps: Île De Gorée
Drive to Gorée, a wonderful and unique island off Dakar. Go there to see the museums, stroll through its narrow streets planted with palm trees and flowering bougainvilleas, enjoy the quiet charm of the decrepit colonial buildings and its unique colours: reds with a patina of ages, Spanish (or Italian) ochres with fragile scales...
Tracing the history of slavery
Steps: Île De Gorée
And of course, visit the Maison des Esclaves Martyrs, a place of memory symbolizing the slave trade of an entire continent in search of a lost history, a red-hot scorch inflicted by colonization.
Places of interest : MAISON DES ESCLAVES
Rufisque
Steps: Rufisque
Then, you can quietly take the direction of Rufisque, a few kilometers to the south. Once you arrive in this former trading post, you will see the classic colonial architecture of the trading houses that had invested in groundnuts before turning their attention away from Dakar, where the port was better equipped. Then you will head towards Foundiougne.
Foundiougne
Steps: Ziguinchor
On the road to the south and Casamance, a stopover in the quiet village of Foundiougne is a must, for its particularly pleasant setting in a meander of the Saloum. In colonial times, this was a major port, as evidenced by its old warehouses and administrative buildings. Then it's on to Ziguinchor.
Ziguinchor
Steps: Cap Skirring
The charming capital of Casamance is also a fine testimony to the country's colonial past. With its colonial buildings, beautiful courthouse and red-faced colonial houses, it's a very pleasant place to visit. You can also spend the night in the seaside resort of Cap Skirring.
