We only stayed one night in the administrative capital, Yamoussoukro as we had to press on to the proper capital Abidjan.
The former president, magnificently named Felix Houphouet-Boigny, was born in Yamoussoukro so decided it should be the capital.
He was President for 30 years until his death in 1993, a Roman Catholic, massive Francophile, an MP in the French Parliament during colonialism and known as Papa Houphouet, Le Vieux (the Old One).
In the west, some called him the Wise Man of Africa as he was anti-communist and helped to undermine and remove more left-leaning African Presidents such as Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana) and Thomas Sankara (Burkina Faso).
He had an opulent basilica built in Yamassoukro, during the 1980s, based on the Vatican but even bigger, apparently the biggest basilica in the world, with French stained glass windows and an enormous chandelier, so of course we had to visit.
The capacity is 18,000 but only 200 attend services regularly. A separate building in the grounds was built to host the Pope. Pope John Paul II stayed at the 1990 inauguration, but since then it’s been uninhabited.
During his 3 decades in power, Le Vieux ensured investment in infrastructure, education and industry and Cote D’Ivoire thrived economically, based on natural resources like coffee, cocoa and oil.
After his death the country struggled to adapt to multi-party democracy, as well as a huge global drop in coffee and cocoa prices and a brutal civil war, 2002-2007, split the country north south, involving neighbouring Liberia and Burkina Faso as well as France and Russia.
While we were in the country the current President, Alassane Ouattara took the commendable step of agreeing to stand down to allow other candidates to take part in the forthcoming elections.
Due South 