PORT LOUIS: The capital city of Mauritius
PORT LOUIS: 
After Mahebourg, Port-Louis, in the north west of the island,
became the capital of Mauritius in the early
eighteenth century
because of the superior quality of the harbour. Economically and
administratively Port Louis was better situated. After the completion of the Suez Canal,
Port Louis stopped to be the stopover for ships that travelled from Europe to India.
It was largely because of
the safety
and activity of Port-Louis, that Mauritius then earned the title of
"Star and Key of the Indian Ocean."
It became a major port in the
Indian Ocean. In 1968, when Mauritius became independent,
Port Louis was chosen as the
country's capital.
The City of Port-Louis underwent a second birth in the 1980s when
post-independence economic stagnation finally gave way to bursting activity.
The skyline of
Port-Louis has changed dramatically since, and high-rising
towers now compete with
buildings from the colonial times. Port-Louis is
unrecognizably quiet after business hours
and on week-ends, except
when the Champs-de-Mars 
hosts the very popular horse races.
Major manufactured goods include
processed food—especially sugar,
wood products, and printed fabrics.
Port Louis is the site of the Mauritius Institute (1880),
which operates a public
library and the Port Louis Museum (featuring natural history collections),
and the Citadel, a fortress built in 1838.
Mahebourg is the first ever port and is named after one of the foremost
figures in the history of the Island, the French
governor Mahe de Labourdonnais.
The Naval Museum in
Mahebourg reveals the richness
of the historical past of the village. The Dutch settlers
disembarked at
"this first capital harbour" of the island, and the theatre
of the sole victory of the Napoleonic
fleet over the British.
Curepipe stands at the lower
tip of the urban zone which stretches diagonally across the
island from Port-Louis, through Beau-Bassin, Rose-Hill, Quatre-Bornes, Vacoas and Phoenix.
Curepipe became a popular residential town in the previous century reputedly after
inhabitants
fled the malaria epidemics on the west coast for the healthier,
if wetter, highlands.
The strangeness of the name 'Curepipe' has given rise to
fanciful etymologies, the
most persistent of which is that travelers used to
stop there to 'cure' their pipes!
Curepipe today is an elegant residential
town with prize colonial houses, pleasant
public gardens and a ultra-modern
vegetable market! A short drive around
Curepipe brings you to
Trou-aux-Cerfs,
one of the most exciting points of
view 
of the island, and to the luscious tea 
plantations.
Grand Baie owes its popularity to the enchanting quality of its
emerald waters
and to its liveliness by day or by night. It offers
facilities for safe swimming,
sailing, windsurfing, and water skiing.
Grand Baie also hosts a variety of fashion
and craft shops, hotels,
restaurants, and night-clubs. It is the departure point
for helicopter excursions, and it provides facilities for deep sea
angling and for
boat excursions to the islands to the north of Mauritius:
Gunners' Quoin, 
Flat Island, Round Island, and Serpent Island.