Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th July, 2009: City walk

Friday wasn't a swimming day - too cloudy, cool, and windy. However we had been led to believe that local oysters would be available at the central market, so we went. They weren't. Instead we bought New Zealand oysters, and had to ask to get them opened as our apartment does not run to an oyster knife. (It didn't run to any kind of chopping knife, so we bought one on our first day here.) We also stocked up on Poingo bananas, pineapple, pawpaw, more sesame doughnuts with the yellow pea stuffing, and much more.

From Noumea2009

After taking it home and having lunch, we headed for what was marked on the map as the Handicraft Centre. This turned out to be a special event in the line of a trade show for plants and flowers, and gardening equipment. There was one shop selling fossilised shark teeth, but we passed on those. Across the street is the Musee d'Historique de Maritime, so we went there and had a good look around. It was interesting, but we passed on the movie about the Mystery of La Perouse. It was 90 minutes, in French, so we thought we could live without seeing it. Cap'n Jackson and Convict Kate were snapped.





Saturday too was grey and windy, the water looking too choppy for much swimming. There was a market in town, in the Place de Cocotieres, so we aimed for that, and perhaps a wander around the shops. They would be open, it not being lunchtime.

We passed a very large demonstration, the Kanaks are seeking greater independence. There were many people.



Yes, the market was on. We saw lots of stalls and I bought a woven basket. We saw some dancing girls,


and dancing boys,



and men.



and a pug, dressed in raincoat. The little boy in his walker was very protective of his pug, and every time I bent down to coo over it, he wheeled right between me and the pug.



We walked around town and bought a few souveniers. It being just below thirty degrees, the women were all rugged up. This means their Mother Hubbard dresses, with woolly scarves, cardigans, coats etc. The look for the women is all exactly the same style. Their dresses vary not at all in style, only in colour and the amount of lace adorning them. They look comfortable, but not stylish. They dominate the stores.









The poncho over the muu-muu is also a good look:



I haven't managed to snap anyone, but the look for the boys is the hoodie, with hood up.. Sometimes a fur-lined parka against the freezing weather.

A nice variation on a manhole cover was sighted and snapped: