HÔTEL PRÉSIDENT

The Hotel Président, so emblematic of Yamoussoukro's past glory, like the Hotel Ivoire in Abidjan, can be considered as a visit in itself beyond its hotel, restaurant and leisure facilities. It is to Olivier-Clément Cacoub, "the architect of the Old", that we owe this surprising building, consisting of a tower (erected in 1980) and a building (dating from 1973) not necessarily to everyone's taste. You will notice that the entrance hall, with its high ochre marble pillars and barococo chandeliers, looks like a miniature and more "modest" reproduction of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Foundation for Peace Research. To paraphrase the poet, here everything is "luxury, calm and voluptuousness". Businessmen, politicians and senior executives, international civil servants, members of various and varied NGOs and occasional tourists strolling idly in the lobby or lingering over a drink in the soft armchairs of the bar, their ears glued to their mobile phones. It emanates from the President - like many buildings erected after independence - a kind of outdated charm, frozen in a temporality that seems to have stopped at the flashy pomp of the 1970s, halfway between the kitsch aesthetic of the Shining and James Bond films. Be sure to climb up to the panoramic restaurant, located on the 14th floor of the hotel tower, for a drink and enjoy a breathtaking 360° view of the city through its vast bay windows.