# The suburbs of Nouméa



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

A city rarely seen on SSC. Nouméa is the capital of New Caledonia, a French overseas territory in the South Pacific. Nouméa is located 1,370 km (850 miles) from the eastern shore of Australia, 1,480 km (920 miles) from the northern shore of New Zealand, and 16,720 km (10,390 miles) from Paris (for comparison, Honolulu lies 7,775 km from Washington DC, and Vladivostok lies 6,425 km from Moscow). Yet for its very distant location, Nouméa keeps a distinctly French character, complete with Bastille Day parades and bakeries selling fresh croissants.

Nouméa enjoys one of the most beautiful locations in the world, a jagged urban peninsula with lots of coves and beaches entirely surrounded by an emerald blue lagoon, and tall mountains as a backdrop. If New Caledonia had developed earlier and Nouméa had several million inhabitants, it would probably be known worldwide today as one of the most beautiful metropolises in the world on par with San Francisco and Rio de Janeiro.

Nouméa is not anywhere as large as these two cities, but it is growing fast. The Greater Nouméa metropolitan area currently has 160,000 inhabitants, up from 97,500 at the 1989 census. Population growth is fuelled by immigration of Melanesian Kanaks (the original inhabitants of New Caledonia) from the rural areas of New Caledonia who come to the "big city" for work opportunities, and White people from Metropolitan France attracted by New Caledonia's quality of life, climate, and booming economy (New Caledonia sits on the world's third largest reserves of nickel).

At the last census which asked ethnicity questions (the 1996 census), 45.7% of the people in the Greater Nouméa metropolitan area were White people, 21.6% were Melanesian Kanaks, 17.8% were Polynesian immigrants who have arrived in the past 40 years, and more than 6% were Eastern Asian immigrants. The White people, the Melanesian Kanaks, and the Polynesian immigrants (who come from other French overseas territories in the Pacific) are all French citizens and enjoy the same rights as people in Metropolitan France.

As a consequence of this big population growth, the suburbs of Nouméa have expanded a lot in the past 40 years, and the once sleepy town has now become a large city experiencing the same problems as other first world cities (traffic congestion, stress, rising housing prices, urban deprivation, anti-social behavior, and even a few cases of urban violence), but of course on a much smaller scale than larger metropolises such as Sydney or Paris (traffic jam in Nouméa means being stuck in traffic for 15 minutes, lucky people! lol).

Here I'm posting pictures of the suburbs of Nouméa that I have collected over the years from various sources (flickr, panoramio). Only the suburbs are shown, i.e. anything outside of downtown Nouméa. I'll add more pictures over time. Feel free to add pictures too (but no pictures of the downtown area, which is the one most often seen on the internet).










1.









2.









3. The Jean-Marie Tjibaou Melanesian Kanak cultural center, designed by Renzo Piano, is a symbol of the reconciliation between the different ethnic communities of New Caledonia:









4.









5.









6.









7.









8.









9.









10.









11. Roquefort cheese anyone? 









12.









13.









14.









15.









16.









17. Motorways/freeways have been built in the past two decades to cope with the increasing traffic, but they stop at the entrance of the Nouméa urban peninsula, which is where most traffic jams occur:









18.









19.


----------



## david chanrion (Oct 4, 2002)

wo , interesting !
the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Melanesian Kanak cultural center, designed by Renzo Piano is the proof that world class architectural wonder can btake into account local architectural style. Certainly something to think about when you see all of these buildings that look alike all over the world.


----------



## isakres (May 13, 2009)

Thanks for sharing...., indeed the cultural center is amazing and fits perfectly with the local culture and environment......

Very interesting Noumea...

:cheers:


----------



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

On week-ends people like to take their boats and go into the magnificent lagoon surrounding Nouméa on all sides. Boat ownership in Nouméa is much higher than in European or North American cities.

20.









21. You can see Nouméa in the distance to the left of the picture:









22.









23.









24.









25.









26.


----------



## The Knowledgeable (Nov 8, 2007)

Indeed very interesting!

Some parts could easily be mistaken for southern France.


----------



## Matthias Offodile (Apr 16, 2005)

A true paradise thanks to lavish support from La Métropole!

Keep the pics coming, I love them....


----------



## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Thanks @brisavoine for sharing photos from suburbs of Noumea, very nice; of course the city it' self (downtown of Noumea) is really very nice as well


----------



## Bond James Bond (Aug 23, 2002)

Looks like paradise!


----------



## NorthWesternGuy (Aug 25, 2005)

Absolutely beautiful How can I get to there from, let´s say, Los Angeles?


----------



## Rekarte (Mar 28, 2008)

Good Pics!
Very nice city and country!
The sea very blue,color beautiful!


----------



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

NorthWesternGuy said:


> Absolutely beautiful How can I get to there from, let´s say, Los Angeles?


You fly from LA to Sydney, on whatever airlines, then from Sydney to Nouméa on Air Calédonie.


----------



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

So let's continue our little tour in the suburbs of Nouméa ("suburbs" is perhaps not the most appropriate word, given that some of these areas are quite close to the downtown area).

27. The local "Twin Peaks". Nouméa definitely has an air of San Francisco, just with 10 times less urbanization.









28. Someone is apparently longing for the old village lifestyle in Kanak huts ("cases canaques" in French). Is that a White person in quest of exotism, or a Melanesian Kanak exiled in the big city? Many Kanaks are known to try and reproduce their village lifestyle when they move to Nouméa, but here I would tend to think it is just a White person playing Robinson Crusoe.









29. The French 'dos d'âne' (speed bumps) have also invaded the streets of the South Pacific. :doh:









30. Some colonial houses have survived from the old sleepy days. When WW2 started, Nouméa had only 20,000 inhabitants.









31.









32.









33.









34. Few people use public transportation in Nouméa. It is essentially a car society (hence the growing traffic jams, now that Greater Nouméa has 160,000 inhabitants, and soon 200,000-250,000). The public buses are notoriously often "en grève" ("on strike", so no bus service), an unfortunate aspect of French life that has been imported in the South Pacific. There are talks of creating a light-rail (tramway) network, but so far it is still on the drawing board. 









35.









36. Light clothes. 









37.









38.









39. The mangrove in the northeastern suburbs of Nouméa. A few buildings can be seen emerging here and there. There is huge urban pressure in that area, opposed by environmentalists who fight to preserve the mangrove.









40.









41. Further south closer to the city center, the mangrove has been fully urbanized and has almost completely disappeared:









42.









43. "Le" Surf. 









44. "Le" Roof. This pier is located in the chich beach districts at the southern tip of the Nouméa urban peninsula:









45. A hotel in the chic beach districts:









46. The urban park of Ouen Toro, on the eastern side of the Nouméa peninsula:









47. Suburban lifestyle. Not your overcrowded metropolis yet.









48. 10,000 Pacific Francs (=84 euros; 120 US dollars)









49. Saturday market in the neighborhood:









50. Selling clothes too (I believe these are called "paréos" in French):









51. This is typically what I was saying about the Melanesian Kanaks bringing their village lifestyle into the city. It certainly makes for an interesting use of the city.









52. "Walk slowly" says the sign. And yes, another bad French habit imported in the South Pacific, the stupid little poodle on leash! :doh:









53. Two cultures facing each other: Whites and Kanaks. Can it work in the long term? Successfully mixing both cultures is New Caledonia's greatest challenge in the coming decades (the economy and job market is no worry thanks to New Caledonia's huge nickel reserves).









More pictures to come in the next days.


----------



## add1t (May 26, 2009)

beautiful photograph
maybe one day I'll take some trip to Nouméa


----------



## Rodel (May 6, 2006)

New Caledonia...
looks interesting. very good photos.


----------



## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Very nice new photos of Noumea; Indeed New Caledonia island its awesome for sure


----------



## hellospank25 (Feb 5, 2008)

Are people in New Caledonia rich? and can people from France just move there without visa if they wish?


----------



## melbstud (Mar 26, 2008)

Noumea is trebien.

I plan on flying on Air Austral now tey do the Paris-Reunion-Australia-Noumea run.


----------



## Minato ku (Aug 9, 2005)

Of course we can move here without visa, New Caledonia is part of the french republic, even it has a move independant status than overseas departement. 
The oposite is also true, people living here are French citizen as a people living in Paris.

Now is the inhabitant are wealthy ? it depend as any other place.
Kanak are underrepresented in the economic upper class and the white are overrepresented.
You imagine the oposite while the white are surely underrepresented in the lower economic level, Kanak are overrepresented.
Unfortunely it is the same as in many place. 

The majority of the population in all group is middle class.


----------



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

melbstud said:


> I plan on flying on Air Austral now tey do the Paris-Reunion-Australia-Noumea run.


It's a long long trip...

But in a few years Air Austral will have some A380 between Paris and Réunion, so it will be a fun flight.


----------



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

I've just checked, on Air Austral the cheapest Paris-Nouméa ticket at the moment costs 1,070.29 euros round trip all taxes included, but it takes 27 to 30 hours to get to Nouméa, and it's a special promotion expiring in October, for the launch of the new line. After that the cheapest non promotional tickets will cost 1,378.66 euros all taxes included. On Air France the cheapest Paris-Nouméa round trip ticket costs 1,360.22 euros all taxes included, and it takes "only" 23 to 25 hours to get there because it's a shorter route, with only one stopover in either Japan or Korea.


----------



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

As promised, we've reached the next page, so here are the two huge panoramas of Nouméa's northern suburbs. This is where most
of the urban expansion is taking place at the moment (approx. +3,000 new inhabitants every year in the metro area).

Dry season:










Wet season:


----------



## xavarreiro (May 30, 2009)

good shots


----------



## Indictable (Sep 23, 2008)

Amazing, The first one has more cranes than I'd think, especially in an isolated place.


----------



## warden987 (Jul 6, 2009)

The suburbs of Nouméa look very well-to-do and nice.


----------



## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

I cannot see them, brisavoine...


----------



## Joop20 (Jun 29, 2004)

What an interesting city! Do you have more pictures from Noumea? Or updates on new construction projects?

Also, I'm wondering if there are many people from mainland France moving here? Looks like a very attractive place to live!


----------



## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Noumea should be a really very nice place for holidays


----------



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

I posted these pictures in the international Skybar, but I thought they would fit well in this thread too. These are pictures I found on the Facebook page of a friend of mine from Nouméa. They basically illustrate the life of young people in Nouméa in the 2010s. Enjoy!



















NC = Nouvelle-Calédonie (it replaces the department number over there on French licence plates)




























Xmas in the summer! 





































High school in Nouméa. It looks way more fun than when I was in high school!!
































































New Caledonia is FAAAAAAAAAAAAAR.


----------



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

Joop20 said:


> Also, I'm wondering if there are many people from mainland France moving here?


Yes. Approximately 2,000 to 4,000 people from Metropolitan France move there every year. For example my friend was born in Nouméa, but his parents came from Metropolitan France. Now he's studying in Paris, because university studies in New Caledonia are limited, so students have to go either to Paris or to Sydney to pursue specific fields. Most students go to Paris, even though it's a 24 hours journey from New Caledonia by plane. They return to New Caledonia only during the summer recess (which is winter in Nouméa).


----------



## manrush (May 8, 2008)

The Florida of France, innit?


----------



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

Less crowded than Florida, more laid-back, and FAR LESS violent. Also, the weather is not as sultry and humid as Florida, it's more pleasant.


----------



## Allrightsreserved (Jan 9, 2012)

^^ photo of people without faces is not photo)


----------



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

Well, I'm not going to disclose the identity of people on here (although most likely they wouldn't give a damn, because New Caledonians are very laid-back in that respect, but still).


----------



## Yuri S Andrade (Sep 29, 2008)

Very very interesting place, New Caledonia! And this beautiful photo selection really bringing us there!

Brisavoine, you discussed the social and racial issues on the thread, and I remember once I read about the "native" white people there, who are very conservative, something typical of colonial societies. Are they still a relevant group, politically and socially, or have been absorbed into the new waves coming from France? Or is the other way around: the newcomers who start to get the old habits?

P.S. I was flying over it on GE, and it's funny how French colonial cities look alike (and are different from everything else) with all these white roofs and weird blocks.


----------



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

What you call the "native" White people are called the Caldoches. They tend to descend from Metropolitan French people who arrived in New Caledonia several generations ago, some of them descending from convicts brought to New Caledonia in the 19th century (same as in Australia). The Caldoches tend to have a strong Caldoche French accent.

The way you describle them is extremely stereotypical though. The Caldoches are not "very conservative". That's ridiculous. There are racist Caldoches just as there are racist Brazilians. And the far-right National Front does not score higher in Caldoches areas than in areas inhabited by people from Metropolitan France. Moreover, some Caldoches have Arabic/Berber ancestry, because France deported North African rebels to New Caledonia in the 19th century. And some Caldoches also have some Melanesian (Kanak) blood in them, because there were mixed marriages in the 19th century (many White male convicts, and few White women back then). So frankly, things are way more complicated than you imagine them.

As for the White people who came from Metropolitan France, they are called Zoreilles. The Zoreilles have the same accent as in Paris. The Caldoches tend to make fun of the Zoreilles (they see them as newbies, inexperienced, a bit dumb). On the other hand the Zoreilles tend to see the Caldoches as loud people, uncough, bush people ("broussards", i.e. someone from the "brousse" ; brousse = bush). Of course I'm generalizing and exaggerating things a bit, but there's some truth in that.

Then there are the children of the Zoreilles who were born in New Caledonia, like my friend. They tend to be somewhere in between, and I'm not sure how they identify themselves. For example my friend, although he lived from age 0 to age 19 in Nouméa, doesn't have Caldoche accent. I told him he doesn't have any specific accent from New Caledonia, and he replied a bit annoyed "well of course, I don't have their stupid (Caldoche) accent!" I thought that was a bit strange of him to show so much disdain for the local Caledonian accent. Yet this same guy feels Caledonian through and through, misses his island all year long in Paris, always feels homesick in Paris, and can't wait to return there each summer. Yet he doesn't identify with the Caldoches at all, whom he probably finds a bit too "bumpkin". I guess that's why he didn't like me to ask about his accent. At the same time he uses some words and expressions used only by New Caledonians, which I find very cute.

Anyway. I don't know which group is overtaking the other. In Nouméa the Zoreilles and their children predominate. In the rest of New Caledonia, in the White zones the Caldoches predominate (in particular around Bourail which is Caldoche land, with stockmen and stockmen culture like in the Australian bush). In the Melanesian zones, the few White people there are most of the time Caldoches. The Caldoches are more used to the Melanesians than the Zoreilles. The Zoreilles are more urban, the Caldoches more rural. But then these days there are more and more Melanesian (Kanak) immigrants from the countryside who come to Greater Nouméa, so the Zoreilles of Nouméa are more and more in contact with the Kanaks. And then there are also many Polynesian immigrants (Wallisians, Futunians, and Tahitians) in Greater Nouméa, plus some Melanesians who are not Kanaks but immigrants from Vanuatu. There are also some Vietnamese, French Indochinese, and Javanese people. And more and more mixed people.

So you can't make black and white simplifications. In the pictures of young people that I posted above I think most of them are children of Zoreilles, but there are also some children of Indochinese, Javanese, and some mixed people. For example my friend's best friend has a name which is a mix of French and a Chinese dialect from French Indochina.


----------



## Yuri S Andrade (Sep 29, 2008)

^^
First of all, as I said, I just read about it, a long time ago. I didn't have the full picture (or any picture whatsoever) that's why I asked you. I'm not implying things or making any assumptions or simplifications. Also, I don't think "very conservative" is a derrogatory term. At all. Let alone being the same as "racist". I don't even know how you did that connection.

Anyway, thank you for the explanation! It seems the relation between Caldoches and Zoreilles looks like the one between Afrikaners and English in South Africa (less tense though), even regarding the geographical distribution and their relation with the Kanaks. 

Other questions: Caldoche's culture and accent are different enough to be perceived as "foreign" by French as much as Québécoise's are? Do Kanaks speak French as their mother tongue?

P.S. Do you know why the French colonial cities all around the globe have those features in common, but don't share them with their neighbours?


----------



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

Yuri S Andrade said:


> Other questions: Caldoche's culture and accent are different enough to be perceived as "foreign" by French as much as Québécoise's are?


Caldoche accent sounds distinct enough, but not as widely distinct as the Québécois accent. I'd say the difference between Caldoche accent and Parisian accent is like the difference between Parisian accent and Belgian accent. 

In this video the guy to the right in the beginning has a Caldoche accent ("fin bon" is a typical Caldoche expression meaning "it's good"). The guy to the left has a French Polynesian accent (he's a "rae rae", a male Polynesian brought up as a girl, which is a Polynesian custom for younger sons; his parents probably came to New Caledonia as immigrants from Tahiti or Wallis and Futuna). The woman whose hands are only visible has an Asian accent. She's an Indochinese store owner. The Indochinese tend to own the stores in New Caledonia. The woman who arrives later with a red dress is a Zoreille, and she has a typical Parisian accent.








Yuri S Andrade said:


> Do Kanaks speak French as their mother tongue?


The concept of mother tongue makes little sense in the Francophone world. It's like in Francophone Africa. What matters is the language used in daily life.

Almost all the Kanaks can speak French (at the 2009 census, 98.9% of all the inhabitants of New Caledonia reported that they could speak French). There are no data about the actual use of French in daily life at home. In the rural areas I guess the Kanaks still speak their native languages at home, but they use French in town and when they meet Kanaks from other tribes (there are more than 20 different Kanak languages, and they are not mutually intelligible). In Greater Nouméa, some Kanaks probably still speak their native tribe's language at home and French in the street with strangers, and some other Kanak families probably speak also French at home.

Based on the 2009 census, I can tell you that 40.3% of New Caledonia's inhabitants identified themselves as Kanaks, but only 35.8% of people said they could speak a Kanak language. So that means 11% of the Kanaks can't even speak a Kanak language. And the language statistics covered only the people older than 15 y/o. If we include those under 15, the percentage of Kanaks who can't speak a Kanak language is probably higher. In Greater Nouméa in particular the Kanaks are probably all going to stop talking Kanak languages in one or two generations, because there are so many different Kanak languages, and they are not mutually intelligible, so only French can be used to communicate with people not from your tribe.

The French accent of the Kanaks is quite distinct from the Caldoches. They have a very soft way of talking French, very different from the Caldoches, and also very different from the Polynesians. I wonder whether in the future a single Caledonian accent will emerge as a merger of all the various accents (Caldoches, Zoreilles, Kanaks, Polynesians). It will be interesting to watch.

Here you have some examples of Kanak accents (the guy at 1:01 in the 1st video in particular has this soft and slow tone typical of the Kanaks):













Yuri S Andrade said:


> P.S. Do you know why the French colonial cities all around the globe have those features in common, but don't share them with their neighbours?


Not all the French colonial cities have the same features. I don't know what you're referring to in particular. The largest French colonial cities were Algiers, Saigon, Hanoi, Tunis, Oran, Casablanca, and they certainly did not look like Nouméa.

That's the quintessential French colonial city, back in the days of its splendor (it used to be the best city in all of Africa, the most cosmopolitan and chic, but these days are long gone now):











In comparison, Nouméa was just a backwater in some remote corner of the French colonial empire back then. But in an ironic twist of history, it's now Nouméa that is the fun and pleasant place to live, whereas Algiers has become.... no comment.


----------



## Yuri S Andrade (Sep 29, 2008)

Liked the video! Ironically, the Zoreille girl was the most difficult to understand. The Polynesian does an Italian "R", Caldoche's accent is very peculiar (no wonder your friend avoids it...) and the Indochinese, well, it's Asian.

About the language, you're saying most Kanaks don't speak French at home, using French only as public language. BTW, Kanak's accent is the BEST! Well-spoken, very easy to understand!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About the cities, I meant the current colonial suburbs, with their not well-drawn blocks (with houses sort of disconnected of them) and specially, the whitish roofs:

Cayenne
http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=pt-BR&ll=4.928275,-52.28724&spn=0.0363,0.055747&t=k&z=15

Fort-de-France
http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=pt-BR&ll=14.634746,-61.073556&spn=0.035253,0.055747&t=k&z=15

Pointe-à-Pitre
http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=pt-BR&ll=16.215334,-61.481338&spn=0.034986,0.055747&t=k&z=15

St. Denis
http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=pt-BR&ll=-20.915466,55.481558&spn=0.034034,0.055747&t=k&z=15

Nouméa
http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=pt-BR&ll=-22.244377,166.500378&spn=0.067447,0.111494&t=k&z=14

Papeete
http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=pt-BR&ll=-17.544166,-149.530063&spn=0.03474,0.055747&t=k&z=15

^^
If you look to cities in neighbouring countries: Suriname, Mauritius, Fiji, Australia, you'll not see those features. It's almost like the same city although they are thousands of kilometers away from each other, in three different continents.

P.S. I love those colonial videos! It's so nostalgic! There are great ones in Youtube featuring Jakarta (Batavia), the people, Dutch military parades, etc. Just type "Dutch East Indies" to find them.


----------



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

Yuri S Andrade said:


> Ironically, the Zoreille girl was the most difficult to understand.


She's the easiest for me to understand. 


Yuri S Andrade said:


> The Polynesian does an Italian "R"


Yeah, the French Polynesians roll the "r", but they roll them more softly than Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese speakers. It's very cute. In fact the French Polynesian accent is one of my favorites French accents (along with Belgian and of course Toulouse accent).


Yuri S Andrade said:


> About the language, you're saying most Kanaks don't speak French at home, using French only as public language.


I didn't say that. I'm just making some assumptions, since there are no data on that subject. I think more and more Kanaks use French at home, especially in Greater Nouméa. But perhaps also in the rest of New Caledonia. Don't forget that TV is only in French, and Kanak kids watch TV, like all the kids around the world.


Yuri S Andrade said:


> About the cities, I meant the current colonial suburbs, with their not well-drawn blocks (with houses sort of disconnected of them) and specially, the whitish roofs:
> 
> Cayenne
> http://maps.google.com.br/maps?hl=pt-BR&ll=4.928275,-52.28724&spn=0.0363,0.055747&t=k&z=15
> ...


That's a recent phenomenon though. All these cities were backwaters during the heyday of the French colonial empire. The big French colonial cities, like I said, were Algiers, Saigon, Tunis, Hanoi, Oran, Casablanca, Dakar, etc. If you want to judge French colonial architecture, go to Algiers or Hanoi.

Those cities in overseas France are not colonial cities. In fact they have very little of their colonial past, since they were so small during the days of the colonial empire. They mostly reflect the modern architecture of overseas France. And modern French urbanism is not well planned like in the US, with street grid planned long in advance. French overseas cities grow a bit haphazardly, with lots of little 'neighborhood islands' (don't know how to call it) with cul-de-sac. It's the same in Metropolitan France. I don't like that sort of urbanism. I'd rather we have coherent street grids like in North America.


----------



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

On to the wonderful world of the next page.


----------

