# The streets of Papeete, capital of French Polynesia



## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

Some rare pictures showing the streets of Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, located on the island of Tahiti. I found the pictures in this French blog: http://fun-iles.blog.fr/2008/09/21/papeete-centre-ville-20-sept-4756183/

Papeete has a population of 131,695 inhabitants in its urban area. It is the 2nd largest Francophone city in the Pacific (the largest one is Nouméa). The pictures here were taken in downtown Papeete. Downtown Papeete is extremely compact, and so its streets are usually choked with traffic, but note that the pictures here were taken at a time of the day when there was no traffic, which gives a rather eerie air to this normally quite congested part of the city.

A map of the Papeete urban area:









The sea-front boulevard leading to downtown Papeete:









Statue of the French navigator Bougainville facing the seafront. Bougainville landed in Tahiti in 1768 and made the island very famous in Europe when he published his _Voyage autour du monde_ in which he described Tahiti as an earthly paradise where men and women lived happily in innocence, away from the corruption of civilization. His account illustrated the concept of the noble savage, and influenced utopian thoughts of philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau before the French Revolution.









We are now in downtown Papeete:



























A pedestrian street:









Rue du Maréchal Foch:









A side street seen from Rue du Maréchal Foch: 









Cinéma Concorde (a movie theater):



























The traditional farmers' market of Papeete (to the right). These days most people shop in supermarkets in the suburbs though.









Lots of surf shops for the international surfers and travelers:



























Monument aux morts (monument commerating the local soldiers who "died for France" during WW1 and WW2; such monuments exist in all the French cities and villages):









The offices of the High Commissioner of the French Republic (the equivalent of a prefect in Metropolitan France). From left to right, the flags of the EU, France, and French Polynesia. Nice 1950s colonial architecture here (the same type of architecture can be seen in Brazzaville and other African cities):









The local assembly of French Polynesia:









The offices of the president of French Polynesia (elected by the assembly of France Polynesia). The president of French Polynesia is somewhat similar to the minister-president of a German state:









The Catholic cathedral of Papeete. French Polynesians are quite religious. Part of the population is Protestant (a heritage of the early British influence before the arrival of the French), and the other part is Catholic.



























Back to the commercial streets:


















It seems all these pictures were taken very early in the morning, perhaps just after sunrise, because most stores are closed, and there is nearly no traffic in the streets (normally there should be traffic jams everywhere):









Local night club!









Avenue Pouvanaa a Oopa, on our way out of downtown Papeete:


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## Shezan (Jun 21, 2007)

that is SO interesting, thanx for sharing


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## Rekarte (Mar 28, 2008)

beautiful city, and well developed for its size


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## Di-brazil (Sep 12, 2009)

beautiful


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Its the first time seeing so many photos from Papeete downtown; the town is really very nice


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## JC. SAMPERZ (Jun 6, 2008)

Nice pictures.


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## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

Some more pictures showing the streets of Papeete, from Panoramio.










The Chinese temple of Guandi, a shrine dedicated to the 3rd century Chinese general Guan Yu (he lived at the same time as the Roman emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla), who was deified as Guandi, which means "Emperor Guan":



























To the right, the blue-white flag of the pro-independence party:









Les 3 brasseurs, a popular brasserie in Papeete:


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## chitrakaar (Apr 24, 2005)

Beautiful Vistas!


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## warden987 (Jul 6, 2009)

Papeete looks quite a nice place.


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## Tourniquet (Nov 28, 2006)

Veeeery nice indeed!!!


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Indeed, Papeete city and after those updated photos by brisavoine is one of the very nice and great cities in the region...


>


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## dutchmaster (May 23, 2007)

Not the best of French Polynesia for sure but the city looks nice for it's size and quite organized.


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## Parisian Girl (Nov 6, 2007)

Charming..


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## Leo10Rio (Jan 3, 2008)

Beautiful city and developed, I liked it!


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## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

The harbor of Papeete, with the peaks of the sister island of Moorea in the background.


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## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

Two new pictures.


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## cheychai (Sep 2, 2005)

wow! so nice.


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## .for.ce.br (Sep 1, 2010)

I loved these graffiti in Papeete streets:



brisavoine said:


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I'm serious, not kidding! Reminds me of the graffiti here in Fortaleza streets...

By the way, I'm sure there is a gangsta tagger here in Fortaleza with this nickname "PLOOK". Maybe it is some kind of universal gangsta tagger nickname...


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