Noumea

A little piece of France in the Pacific! With its air of French Riviera (Côte d’Azur) and its luxury boutiques, Noumea deserves without a doubt this title. However, this sprawling city has a thousand other facets that make it a capital of the Pacific, with mixed cultural imprints. Founded in 1860, Noumea blends together heritage, entertainment and leisure activities.

Noumea is the largest city in and capital of New Caledonia. One of the most westernized capitals in the Pacific Islands, it features beautiful beaches and colonial mansions and is not yet a heavily touristed destination. Where metropolitan French will hear a bad French accent, wince and say that they speak English, the Francophones of New Caledonia are either less willing or less able to accommodate Anglophones. It is probably a matter of capability, since they are marvellously willing to persevere in determining what it is that a foreigner needs. Without tourist-level French, you may find yourself lost–but it’s a lovely place to be lost! The French spoken by Kanaks is much harder to understand than the French of people in Paris: on a par with Breton French (or think of the challenge offered by broad Scots or Yorkshire for a naive English-speaker).

Downtown and nearby Neighborhoods
Vibrant neighbourhoods and paces, beautiful bays, various museums … Noumea offers many activities to visitors wishing to enjoy themselves, learn or relax. In the heart of the city, La Place des Cocotiers and its famous bandstand is the place where people love to stroll. In the luxuriant gardens, under the shade of flame trees, the Nouméens love to come and enjoy a quick lunch or just rest for a while.

Also downtown, Chinatown with its colourful shops and Asian snacks will offer you a surprising change of scenery. At a short distance, the Quartier Latin (i.e. the Latin Quarter), Faubourg Blanchot and the old districts of the Vallée du Tir and Vallée des Colons display a colonial ambience, with old wooden houses, ironwork decorations and flowering gardens of hibiscus and bougainvillea.

The Bays
With a string of bays stretching all along the peninsula, Noumea is a pleasant city to live in. L’Anse Vataand the Baie des Citrons on the coastline are the busiest places. Paradise for kitesurfers and windsurfers, the bays are also destinations of choice for families, cyclists and joggers. The Nouméens are sport lovers, and right after business hours, exercise enthusiasts flood the beaches.

Restaurants & Wineries
Because the Bordelais were among the first to open the comptoirs of colonial times, Noumea today has many wineries, cafes and restaurants that make it a great destination for lovers of fine wine and gastronomy.

For a romantic or a family one, various styles of restaurants are offering local products à la française (i.e. French style). Oysters, lobsters, mud crabs, coconut crabs, shrimps, prawns, bougnas and the famous Caledonian deer, local organic vegetables or those from sustainable agriculture, and a wide selection of great French or Australian wines.