I boarded a taxi from Jean Paul II Avenue, a neighborhood known as Nukafu, to be specific. My destination was Le Grand Marché de Lomé. The taxi in question had three other passengers onboard.
On the way to the market, we dropped off someone and picked up a couple of people. When the driver of the not-so-roadworthy saloon car pulled over at the market, I felt the spirit of the busiest part of Lomé.
Grand Marché of Lomé is the biggest market in Togo and one of the biggest in West Africa. It is a hive of activity every day of the week.
This market is a bustling tapestry of colors, sounds, and scents. Its stalls overflow with fresh fruits, clothing items, and artifacts, to name but a few. As vendors competed for my attention, their voices, not to mention the fusion of beats from a myriad of speakers installed all over the place, created a buzzing atmosphere.
After a tour of the Grand Marché, I popped into the Cathedral of Lomé. Also known as the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral, the neo-Gothic structure is a popular tourist attraction. For a detailed account of my experiences at the church, click here.