Outing in Grand Bassam

Yesterday we decided to make a trip to the resort of Grand Bassam, a few kilometres to the east of Abidjan, to take in some sun and have a bain de mer. Grand Bassam was the capital of Cote d'Ivoire during the colonial era and still has some nice examples of colonial style houses. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side (rain all morning) but we decided to go anyway. We headed off with 2 of Derv's colleagues from Wild Chimpanzee Organisation, Claudia and Camille; and Cammille's son, Ayan. He's a little terror but possibly one of the cutest children I have ever encountered in my life. When I got into the car, he shyly said 'bonjour Tantie'. He also has unfathomably long eyelashes. Anyway, after stopping in a market (under lashings of rain) to check out some of the jewellery sold by some Touregs, we settled in the 'resort'. There are basically lots of hotel/restaurants on the sea front that you can eat in and then use the pool or swim in the sea. Because of the bad weather there very few people, save for a few customers and the owners, who made me feel slightly ashamed to be French. Apparently some people haven't quite accepted the decolonisation of the African continent and continue to behave as though they are the masters and others their inferiors. Apart from sitting around drinking Pastis they were generally pretty harmless but there's a general seedy colonial undertone that was confirmed by 2 separate white older men coming in to the restaurant with not one, but two young and attractive Ivorian women on their arms. Shudder. If the guy's sagging jowls and bingowings were anything to go by, I can’t imagine the state of his rear. Despite these sociological (anthropological even?) observations, a great day was had, and I tasted my first Ivorian fish. Since Machoiron wasn't on the menu (!) I settled for a nice safe fillet of sole, with various accompaniments including the renowned 'alloco' (fried plantain) and ‘attieké’, which is tapioca. I don't yet feel confident to graduate onto dishes were you are served the entire fish and have to 'démerde' yourself. Though I was slightly disturbed by my neighbours' daurade staring up at me through his (crispy) round little eyes, and impressive display of orthodontics. We had a wander down the beach after our long lunch and sat in front of the waves for a while. A very nice day indeed, finished off at home with the consumption of bizarre interpretations of patisseries.