Que faire à Gandiol ?

At a glance

Resident or visitor: two ways to head down to Gandiol

If you live in Saint-Louis or the north, Gandiol is your nearest nature outing: leave early, be on the water before the heat, and come back to town for lunch. Remember the resident rate on activities booked through QFS: up to 30% off. If you are passing through, book the pirogue trip from Saint-Louis, transfer included, and leave time to stop at the lighthouse and the salt pans on the way back.

The Gandiol area and the breach

In October 2003, a flood threatened Saint-Louis. To relieve the city, the authorities had a relief channel a few metres wide dug through the Langue de Barbarie, the sand spit that separates the river from the ocean. The sea rushed in and never let go: the channel became the river’s new mouth, widened year after year and now measures several kilometres. Saint-Louis was spared; the Gandiol area, directly opposite, paid the price. Salt water seeped into the groundwater and soils of what had been one of the north’s kitchen gardens, known for its onions. The village of Doune Baba Dièye, eaten away by the sea, had to be abandoned. Pilote Barre and Tassinère live with erosion. And crossing the channel by pirogue has become deadly: since it opened, shipwrecks there have cost the lives of many fishermen.

That does not make Gandiol a disaster zone. The old lighthouse, a black-and-white striped tower, can be spotted from far along the coast. And in the pans, the traditional salt works keep producing: work carried out by women, whose groups in Tassinère now iodise their salt to sell it.