Bustling stalls line markets spilling into streets, where Malagasy market folk tout souvenirs, and spewing taxis and bikes navigate through the busy Independence Avenue. Innumerable steps crawl all over the city’s hilly terrain, leaving intermitted patches of curious Euro flavoured cobbled alleys in their wake. Overhead, the looming façade of the Andohalo Cathedral towers majestically, redolent of Paris or Milan, while all around the misty hills of central Madagascar provide the exotic backdrop to this “city of a thousand”. Welcome to Antananarivo, the cultural, economic and political hub of this Indian Ocean Island nation; a place where colonial French charm still lurks in the crevices, Asian panache oozes through the streets, and African flair can be found on every corner.
As any Antananarivo tour guide will tell you, this high-perched city in the hills is one of the best places to get acquainted with Madagascar’s multicultural character, offering visitors easy access to sites like the rolling rice paddies of the central highlands, the classic Franco trano gasy houses, the Rova Palace under resurrection, not to mention glimpses of the local famadihana death ceremony, or the fruity flavours of authentic Malagasy cuisine.