From Albion to Tamarin

I still can't believe it's been over a year since we came to live in Mauritius. We decided to celebrate by moving house. We left Albion at the start of April, and moved to Tamarin, a little further down the west coast.

The place we were renting in Albion was spacious and modern, and near our friends and the beach, but the longer we lived there, the more negative points we discovered. The house was brand new, which seemed like a good thing at first, but we realised after a few months that it just meant we were the first to see the cracks appear! We had talked about moving before, and the landlady telling us she was increasing our rent by 10% was the extra push we needed.

Albion itself is a nice village. It has a lighthouse, a pretty bay, a great Chinese takeaway, a couple of corner shops, and a new restaurant which serves delicious food.

Albion Bay looking towards Club Med

Chez Ruben - the corner shop

Ah Kong Boulette - Chinese dumplings on the beach

It's also a sleepy commuter-type village; most of the people living in Albion work in Port Louis and only come home in the evenings. There are a lot of empty houses, with those lights on a timer to make people believe there's someone home, when in fact all they do is illuminate the empty interior. Albion doesn't have a supermarket, a bank, or a petrol station. After a year of living there, we still only knew our original friends, and another family who were friends of friends. We didn't see or speak to any of the neighbours. If we were in the same situation, working elsewhere, shopping on the way home, and spending time with family at the weekend, it might have suited us better, but with Merv being away and me being home all day, it wasn't ideal. 

Tamarin was described on an American website I once saw as "a sleepy fishing village on the remote island of Mauritius". This definitely used to be true, and there are still a few fishermen around, but nowadays Tamarin is home to a large ex-pat community and some of the richest people in Mauritius. It has all the services that were missing in Albion, and a lot more going on generally. It's exactly the kind of place I tried to avoid when I lived in France. 

Tamarin at the foot of the mountain seen from Cascavelle

I love it there. Life has changed completely in the two months since we moved. I think being so far from my own home and culture, it's nice to meet other people who've chosen to make Mauritius home. I'm very  lucky because I still get to see the authentic side of Mauritius through Merv and his family and friends.

The house we rent here is much smaller (and cheaper) than the last one. It doesn't have an extra kitchen for frying smelly food, or a big flat roof with a great view but that floods every time it rains. It doesn't even have a giant, invasive plant, or a rogue papaya tree, but it feels more like home after two months that Albion did after a year. 

Our house in Tamarin is a typical creole style, with a lovely big veranda. It's a five minute walk to the shops and bank, and fifteen minutes to the beach. We have everything we need within a couple of miles. The day we moved in, our immediate neighbours came over to introduce themselves. Although I can't say we're friends yet, we see and speak to each other regularly, and they've been round with gifts of fresh coconut and lots of bananas, and I know I could call them if I needed something. We also have friends across the road, and when I go walking in the morning, most people stop and say hello.

La Preneuse - my local beach

Tamarin is on the main road leading down the west coast towards the south of the island, so a lot of people pass through there every day. The entrance to the village is famous for its salt pans. Often there's not much to see there, but I did manage to take one photo on a salt harvesting day. 

There are currently talks to build a shopping centre on 70% of the salt pans.The plans are being widely protested, and I really hope they manage to stop it, but I'm not very optimistic.

On my morning walks around Tamarin, I've come across some interesting sights, the craziest being this giant bird:

Apparently, the owner of this house had a dream in which she was told (by God?) to build a giant bird in her garden and charge people to come and see it. She told everyone she was giving all the proceeds to the Catholic church, but they never saw any money and tried to close her down. I don't know whether you can still go in, but in any case, you can see the bird from miles away.

The people who live on the mountainside in Tamarin are further from the beach, but they do have great views over the west coast. I found this piece of land which I thought would be a pretty nice place to build a house:

View of Le Morne from a Tamarin street

As in Albion, and the rest of Mauritius, you can build pretty much what you want on your land, and the houses here are even bigger and more impressive that the ones in Albion. A lot of them are hidden behind high fences and strategically placed rows of palm trees, but I have found a couple of good ones:

Camelot

Massive mountain chalet type house

The only thing I really miss about Albion is having our close friends within walking distance, but they're moving back to France in two days, so even from Albion that would be a very long walk!