This Saturday and Sunday (5th & 6th) of November took place the 10th edition of the Vintage and Classic Car Owners Association, the Classic Tour de Maurice. On the first day the venue was at the Royal College of Curepipe where a good 25 vintage cars were present, to the delight of the public. On …
Found opposite the Curepipe Municipal Garden, the history behind the old Curepipe market dates back since 1878. At that time Curepipe was still a developping town. In the beginning, the market place of Curepipe was just a hall of teck wood covered with ‘bardeaux’, and to be more precise, it was erected on the 2nd …
As a tradition now, this year the 8th Vintage and Classic Car Tour was organized on the 2nd of November 2014 and the venue was divided into two parts, meeting at Phoenix Les Halles and travel to Flacq to meet again at Flacq Shopping Mall. This year was as interesting as the previous one and …
During the 1950s, Air France linked Mauritius from Nairobi with the Super Constellation aircraft with its 4 propeller engines and from testimonials of those who had the chance to board these flights, the narrated experience was quite spectacular. During night flights, flames could be visible from the four engines, which was a sign of normal …
Starting in front of the Government House up to China Town, Royal Street is among the most famous streets in Port Louis due to the number of commercial buildings and others. Starting in front of the Government House, this street is now a one-way traffic towards Plaine Verte and famous buildings like The Mauritius Commercial …
Place D’Armes, which extends between the Government House till the front of the Harbour, including the Statue of Mahe de La Bourdonnais, is considered to be the heart fo the city of Port Louis. The place is royally enclosed by tall palm trees and surrounded by old canons digged half-way in the ground. At the …
One of the busiest and principal street in Port Louis, La Chaussée was built during the French Ruling period by the engineer Tromelin on the 1st July 1779, two months after the arrival of the Governor Vicomte de Souillac. This part of Port Louis, including the ‘Jardin de la Compagnie‘ was at the beginning a marshy land …
This Curepipe Market as we see in the image is no more and has been replaced by the current one we can see today in 2014 (picture further down). It was a much better looking building even though it had problems. In 1975, after the Cyclone of Gervaise, the Curepipe market faced much damage which …
The history of Champ de Mars goes back since the times of Mahé de La Bourdonnais during which the french were still occupying the island, Isle de France, then. Mahé de La Bourdonnais chose this area as a training ground for field manoeuvres for his soldiers. The training exercises were performed each Sunday, and each …
The Merven Building, from the Merven Brothers, laid its first stone in April 1950. Back in 1939, due to the success of similar apartment buildings being constructed (one opposite the Ritz Cinema, and the other near the St Therese Church) the Merven brothers seized the opportunity and purchased this plot of land from the property …
The Port Louis Municipal Theatre is one of the oldest theatres and playhouses of the southern hemisphere. Talking about the history behind, Joseph Laglaine, health officer on board a french warship, was the first who thought of bringing a troupe to perform in Mauritius, at that time, Isle de France. The troupe landed in Port …
Back in March 1972, Mauritius received the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. While this was indeed a very special event, everything was highly organized that this 3-days tour of Her Majesty was memorable. The Queen was accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh and arrived from their previous visit, the Seychelles. The Royal Yatch …
The Jummah Mosque located on Royal Street in Port Louis was opened in 1853 and has become the most prominent mosque in Port Louis, so much so, that the title of Pesh Imam (equivalent to high priest) was given to the priest in charge of the mosque. Between 1878 and 1895, various works were undertaken …
The “Place D’Armes” longing the Government House to the Labourdonnais statue in front of the harbour is one of the best known historical landmarks of Port Louis. The place is considered as the very heart of the city. Around 1865, Port Louis could boast to have a fleet of 1300 rented carriages and as many …
The Merven Building, from the Merven Brothers, laid its first stone in April 1950. Back in 1939, due to the success of similar apartment buildings being constructed (one opposite the Ritz Cinema, and the other near the St Therese Church) the Merven brothers seized the opportunity and purchased this plot of land from the property …
Since the early colonial days up to now, Mauritius has known many improvements and additions in the road network. In the beginning there were barely very few roads and the rest was natural forest. Little by little, whilst civilisation began to grow towards the centre of the island the road network as well began to …
The town hall of Port Louis was constructed around late 1960s (or early 1970s) to replace the old colonial town hall prevailing before that. A matter of hapiness or deception for some to see the old one gone and replaced by this new one is an opinion that will vary. This current building is still …
The Harbour Front of Port Louis back in the late 1950s was very different compared to now, if not to say, completely different today. The Albion Docks at the border of the harbour opposite the Labourdonnais Square could still be seen with the railway tracks crossing the front of Port Louis and the big cranes …
This spot in Curepipe hasn’t aged much from the 1980s till now. Apart from the round-about which has been replaced by traffic lights, the rest is all to all the same. Of course, the cars have been replaced by equivalents of the current generation. This image taken from the Barclays buildings on an early morning …
Seeing Curepipe during these golden old days with all these vintage cars gives the impression of life in a Western city, most of which ressemble this same setting. The Merven Building at the middle, the Royal College of Curepipe on the right and the Currimjee building at the far end are those ‘institutions’ that haven’t …