Abidjan Audio Tours

Abidjan is not the capital of Ivory Coast -- that distinction belongs to Yamoussoukro since 1983 -- but it is the city where everything actually happens. The Ebrié Lagoon cuts through the heart of it, separating the high-rise commercial towers of Le Plateau from the older, more layered neighbourhoods on the mainland. Le Plateau's skyline, built on cocoa money from the post-independence boom years, still looks startling when you cross the Pont du Général de Gaulle at dusk and the water catches the last light. The city grew from 180,000 people at independence in 1960 to over six million today -- one of the fastest urban expansions in Africa.

Treichville was the original beating heart of Abidjan before the business district took over, and it still carries that energy: the port, the central market, the music coming out of maquis bars in the evening.

About sixty vernacular languages are spoken in the city, and the French spoken here has evolved into its own form -- nouchi, a street creole that mixes French with Dioula, English and local invention. Attiéké (fermented cassava couscous) with grilled fish and a cold beer at a roadside maquis is the definitive Abidjan meal, eaten on a plastic chair with your elbows on the table.