The markets of the north: Goodlands, Port Louis, Grand Baie

Goodlands is a working town fifteen minutes east of the villa, and its market on Tuesday and Friday mornings is the biggest in the north and almost entirely local. Fruit and vegetables at prices a third of the supermarket's, fish straight from Grand Gaube, spices by the scoop, fabric by the metre, clothes, shoes and kitchenware under tarpaulins. Go between seven and ten, before the heat. Nobody speaks to tourists in particular because there are hardly any, which is the point. Cash only, small notes, and a bag to carry it home.

The covered market in the centre of the capital, thirty minutes by motorway, is open every day except Sunday afternoon, from early morning to about five. The ground floor is fruit, vegetables and the herbalists with their tisanes for every complaint; upstairs is crafts and souvenirs with more insistence and less interest. The food stalls at the entrance sell dholl puri, the flatbread filled with yellow split peas that is the national snack, for a few rupees; eat two with the chilli and the pickles. Buy vanilla pods, Bois Chéri tea, Chamarel coffee and curry powder here. Mornings on a weekday are best; Saturday is crowded and Sunday is half closed.

Ten minutes from the villa, the Grand Baie bazaar is the tourist market: open every day, in the centre of the village, with pareos, baskets, wooden dodos, model ships, spices in gift packs and T-shirts. Prices start high and are expected to come down by a third or more. It is pleasant for an hour in the late afternoon, and useful for last-day presents. For better crafts at fixed prices, the shops on Sunset Boulevard and at La Croisette mall are a few minutes away.

Central Flacq, on the east coast forty-five minutes away, has the largest open-air market on the island on Wednesday and Sunday, a good excuse to see the east. Quatre Bornes, in the centre an hour away, is the textile market on Thursday and Sunday: cottons, linens and the island's own knitwear and shirts at factory prices. Both are a full morning with the drive.

Vanilla from Mauritius or Réunion, sold by the pod in glass tubes. Bois Chéri tea, the vanilla-flavoured one in particular. Rum: the agricultural rums from Chamarel and the aged rums from Labourdonnais and St Aubin are in another league from the supermarket brands. Sugars of different colours from L'Aventure du Sucre. Dried chillies, massala and the curry powder blends. Baskets of vacoas leaf and pareos from the bazaar. Model ships from the Curepipe workshops if you have room in a suitcase. Fresh fruit stays at the villa: lychees in December, mangoes from December to February, pineapple all year.

At the food markets prices are marked or quoted fairly and bargaining is not the custom. At the craft and souvenir stalls it is expected: ask the price, offer half, settle around two thirds, and walk away smiling if it does not work, which often brings the price down behind you. Keep it light. For scale, in 2026 a kilo of tomatoes at Goodlands is around 60 to 100 rupees, a pineapple 50 to 80, a dholl puri 15 to 25, a good pareo 300 to 500 and a basket 400 to 800.