Cote d’lvoire’s most powerful attraction isits people, so if you’re interested in African history, art or music, this is the place to be. There’s also whole lot of phole lot of physical beauty, from towering mountains to fishing villages. For many years Cote d’lvoire was the jewel of West Africa. lts strong economy attracted thousands of workers from neighbouring countries, and sizeable French and Lebanese communities established themselves in Abidjan. ln recent times, the country has been rocked by huge debts and a military coup.

November to February

Exploring Grand Bassam’s faded colonial charm Experiencing the warmth and friendliness of lvoirians Taking in a performance of exhilarating music and masked in the Man area Goggling at Yamoussoukro’s colossal basilica Soaking up the rainforest-clad beaches, such as Monogaga, Grand Bereby or Grand Lahou Communing with chimpanzees in the ParcNational de Tai or with hippos at Parc National de la Comoe

Read Bernard Dadie ‘s Climbie, an autobiographical account of his childhood, or Maurice Bandaman’s novel Le Fils dela Femme Male

Listen to Apartheid is Nazism by Cote d’lvoire’s best-known reggae star, Alpha Blondy

Watch Visages des Femmes (Faces of Women), directed by Cote d’lvoire’s Desire Ecare

Eat kedjenou (chicken, or sometimes guineafowl, simmered with vegetables in a mild sauce), or snack on aloco (ripe bananas fried with chilli in palm oil-it’s a popular street food)

Drink bangui (a local palm wine), or try it distilled as koutoukou (a skull-shattering spirit)

l-ni-cheh. Lkah-kene (Hello. How are you?’ in Dioula, the market language)

Violence-plagued elections; eating out in maquis; coups; Korhogo cloth, Dan masks

Cote d’lvoire lost 42% of its forest and woodland and from 1977 to 1987-the highest rate of loss the world; Cote d’lvoire is the largest of cocoa in the world

Every day some 375 fanicos (washermen), mostly Burkinabe and none lvoirian, jam together in the middle of a small stream near the Parc du Banco, frantically rubbing clothes on huge stones held in place by old car tyres. Afterwards, they spread the clothes over rocks and grass for at least 500m (never getting them mixed up) and then iron them. Any washer not respecting the strict rules imposed by the washers’ trade union, which allocates positions, is immediately excluded.The soap is black and sold by woman who make it from palm oil.