The island’s tiny capital is neatly laid out with a grid system of streets running parallel and perpendicular to the sea.
While it is small it is not as easy as you may think to find your way around. Few of the streets are signed and you will find even the locals don’t know the street names, largely because they change with every change of administration. If asking directions, it is therefore best to use landmarks. The town is best explored on foot, partly because it allows you to avoid the puzzling one-way system.
Rue de la Solidarité runs the length of the town and emerges to cross over reclaimed land and on to the seaside village of Anse aux Anglais (English Bay).
A walk down Rue de la Solidarité leads past the colonial house of the administrator (built in 1873), with a cannon outside the gates. This now houses the Rodrigues Tourism Office (% 832 0866; f 832 0174; e info.rodrigues[at]intnet.mu; tourism-rodrigues.mu; ( 08.00–16.00 Mon–Fri, 08.00–12.00 Sat), which has Wi-Fi facilities as well as information on the island. The offices of Discovery Rodrigues are opposite.
Just near the tourist office, on the corner of Rue de la Solidarité and Rue Hajee Bhai Fatehmamode, is Barclays Bank. Behind the bank is the large, modern Alfred North-Coombs building, which houses the library. Here you can use computers and access Wi-Fi free of charge. In a courtyard in front of the library are kiosks, where members of the Association Rodrigues Entreprendre au Féminin (an association for local businesswomen) sell their wares, including delicious honey and pickles. Opposite Barclays Bank on Rue de la Solidarité, and almost hidden by one-storey houses, are the six miniature minarets of the Noor-ud-Deen Mosque, rebuilt in 1979–81.
Running parallel to Rue de la Solidarité, along the seafront, is Rue Wolphart Harmensen. This leads to the port, customs office and the offices of the Rodrigues Regional Assembly. At the port, opposite Rue Hajee Bhai Fatehmamode, is a war memorial with three rifles forming a tripod and two cannon shafts beside them. The inscription reads: ‘Aux engagés volontaires Rodriguais 1914–18, 1939–45’ (For the Rodriguans who served 1914–18, 1939–45).
At the western end of Rue Wolphart Harmensen is the slaughterhouse, where the white-painted buildings are marked PORC, CABRIS and BOEUF (pigs, goats and cattle). The street outside the slaughterhouse was traditionally where the market took place every Wednesday and Saturday morning. However, when I visited in 2011 a new market building was under construction at the eastern end of Rue de la Solidarité, just before Winston Churchill Bridge. The market is crammed with stalls selling all manner of homemade and homegrown goodies: chutneys, drinks, woven baskets and hats, fruit and vegetables. For many locals this is the highlight of their week and a chance to catch up on the island’s gossip. It’s worth getting up early to see the market at its busiest, around 08.00. If you are going to buy souvenirs at the market it is worth seeking out those made in Rodrigues. When it comes to woven pandanus items, the ones made in Rodrigues tend to be the plain, non-coloured ones, while the brightly coloured bags, hats and drums are usually made overseas. Watch out for a stall selling jewellery made from local pearls and shells – the initiative of a new local co-operative which farms oysters near Anse aux Anglais.
On Rue Mamzelle Julia is the incredible Joli Store, a small bright blue store crammed with a staggering array of items from modern electronic goods to toys that seem to have been hanging in the shop since the 1970s.
The St Barnabas Anglican Church and Rodrigues College school complex is at the eastern end of Rue de la Solidarité. The church is contemporary in style (built in 1977) with an interior tower. The simple, white Roman Catholic church is in Rue Mamzelle Julia. Mass is celebrated on Saturdays at 17.00 and Sundays at 07.00.There is a pharmacy just north of the church on Rue Mamzelle Julia and another one at the eastern (Anse aux Anglais) end of Rue de la Solidarité.
The court house, police station, Air Mauritius office and the island’s only petrol station are at the western (Baie aux Huîtres) end of Rue Max Lucchesi.
The bus station is over the Winston Churchill Bridge at the far eastern end of Rue de la Solidarité. To prevent tailbacks at the petrol station, a brightly painted petrol tanker, which looks more like an ice-cream van, is used to fill up the buses at the bus station. Just beyond the bridge the road divides into two; one leads inland to Mont Lubin, whilst the coast road leads to Anse aux Anglais.
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