VILLAGE ARTISANAL DE GRAND-BASSAM

Major attraction of the city and an almost institutional stopover for all the tourists of Grand-Bassam. On about one kilometre just before the entrance to the town, several hundred shop and workshop huts (there are 392 in all, representing a total of some 2,000 craftsmen, apprentices and dealers) present a compendium of the best that Ivorian arts and crafts have to offer. Created in 1976 by a handful of Gouros, Baoulés and Sénoufos, it has become the largest craft village in West Africa, governed by a dedicated association (the AVAB). One finds there a digest of all the Ivorian and pan-African art: senoufo moon masks and passport masks (thanks to which the ethnicity of travellers was identified in times when identity documents did not exist), sculptures and all kinds of everyday artistic objects carved in teak, baya, ebony or coconut tree essence, lamps and lampshades, copies of artificially aged antiques (an art that Ivorians mastered like no other), leather and bronze specialties of Tuareg shoemakers and blacksmiths (boxes and boxes, jewelry...)....), paintings, batiks, Korhogo canvases, dresses, bags and accessories, household linen (placemats, tablecloths, napkins ...), flower pots made of coconut tree roots, traditional African rattan and bamboo furniture ... Enough to get lost for hours, as long as you like to hunt and you're used to haggling.