BALADE EN VILLE

Boulevard Joffre is the city's main commercial center. Here you'll find banks and exchange offices, car rentals, travel agencies, pharmacies, grocery stores... all in a concentrated area. To find your way around, ask a rickshaw or cab to drop you off in front of the Hôtel Joffre or the Bazar-Bé, and then set off on foot. The seafront promenade runs along a beautiful beach. Locals gather here from 3pm to spend the evening by the sea. But be warned: "Swimming prohibited: sharks". Between pointe Asti and pointe Tanio, boulevard Ratsimilaho, facing the port and the open ocean, offers a beautiful panorama. As you walk to the port, you can see the pretty bay of Toamasina. Old colonial-style Creole buildings line the palm-fringed waterfront, their ochre facades showing the passage of time.

Continuing along the promenade, you pass the Great Mosque and arrive at the port, built by a Franco-German consortium in 1934. Further south, along boulevard Ivondro, the beach is not very hospitable, as the slaughterhouses attract many sharks. For swimming, head further north. In the town center, the large market (Bazar-Bé) is very lively. Here you can stock up on fruit, vanilla sticks, powder and syrup, cloves and cinnamon. Regional handicrafts are well represented, with woven ravinala basketry, fabrics, lamba... Along boulevard Ratsimilaho and rue du Commerce, the narrow streets lining the port are home to warehouses. The scent of vanilla mingles with that of cloves. If you're invited to visit the warehouses in November and December, you'll be able to watch Madagascar lychees being packed before they leave for Europe. Nearby, Place Bien Aimé is known as Place des Banians: planted in the 1920s, they are indeed spectacular! This was the historic heart of Tamatave, where the village of Ampasimazava was located. It is said that ancestors used to worship here. Not far from the station, the Bazar Kely is a fairly large market. Here, asphalt soon gives way to sandy tracks. The popular districts begin. Avenue de l'Indépendance, the city's widest street, is home to the region's territorial administrations. Open-air balls are frequently held near the town hall. At its maritime end, Avenue de l'Indépendance joins Boulevard Ratsimilaho.