Thiès Region

The Manufacture Sénégalaise des Arts Décoratifs was established in 1966 as part of Senegal's post-independence push, under first president Léopold Sédar Senghor, to build cultural institutions capable of representing the young country's own artistic identity — the workshop's specific method, translating paintings by contemporary Senegalese artists into wool tapestries woven entirely by hand, grew directly out of that mandate to produce something recognisably Senegalese rather than importing a European craft tradition wholesale. A single large tapestry can take a small team of weavers several months to complete, working from a full-size painted cartoon, and the finished pieces have since been exhibited in museums and galleries across Europe, North America and Africa. Visitors can walk through the workshop floor and watch weavers at work on pieces in progress, and a small gallery displays completed tapestries for sale.

La Somone Nature Reserve occupies the spot where the Somone river's lagoon meets the Atlantic between Saly and Mbour, and its mangrove channels formed specifically because the lagoon's mouth is partially sheltered from the open ocean by a sandbar — calm enough water for mangrove roots to establish and for the fish nurseries that in turn support the reserve's bird population. Guided pirogue trips move slowly through the mangrove channels, where pelicans, herons, kingfishers and ospreys are common sightings, offering a quieter counterpoint to the charter-resort beaches on either side within a few minutes' drive.