A POPULAR MEETING PLACE

The Barachois (meaning «small shelter» in Malagasy) encompasses the entire seafront of the historic centre: an essential step. A landscaped esplanade, planted with gardens and trees, it extends between the Pointe des Jardins and the Saint-Denis River. Crossed by the N 1, which runs along the coast, the Barachois welcomes them to the Dionysiens who come to relax, sip a cool local dodo (local beer) at a bar-bar or play the bowls on its boules, between fountains, benches and lawns. The atmosphere, even more peaceful on Sunday, when traffic is forbidden, is to stroll. At sunset, many sportsmen and women come to steam after their workday on the health course, cycling, roller or foot.

Of the piers of the Barachois, whose original vocation was port, nothing remains, or almost nothing else. Cyclones were right in the last vestiges of this colonial era; as for the basins, they have been filled. Only the guns, which once defended the port, resisted the onslaught of time. They are still protesting, the open mouth, against what kind of bellicose memory, engulfed in the depths of the ocean.