In my last post, I mentioned visiting the market in Nouméa on the Saturday morning. We got there quite late in the morning, but there were still lots of stalls selling all sorts of things from bananas and melons to all sorts of fish.
French baking
Giant water melons
Veges
Sign at the fish counter
Various fish
And yes – I did eat fish quite a bit while there, from an excellent salad at a local cafe built around tuna carpaccio, to a wonderful fresh tuna steak served with the most delicious coconut based sauce, to a delicious red snapper at Le Roof, where we also watched a turtle, manta ray and many fish swimming beneath us as we ate. We also had dinner one night at the Stone Grill steak house, where we were served excellent local steaks, with excellent side dishes and sauces (me with mushroom and Karl with peppercorn).
Le Roof, Nouméa
Fish salad with one of the local beers, No 1
And of course, since we were kind of in France, we also ate Croque Monsieur and Croque Madame…
Croque Madame with the other local beer, Manta
..but decided not to try the second option on the menu below…
Thistles and Kiwis 
Hi Barbara, just been reading your posts about New Caledonia. They are bringing back lots of happy memories. A few years ago we (the family) spent a month there, we stayed in Noumea and also travelled and did a lot of camping all over the country. We found it a fascinating place, with some lovely people and absolutely stunning scenery. I do remember a couple of negatives, though, the high cost of everything being one, especially food, even food in the markets (but maybe that has changed?) but worse than that was the very uncomfortable relationship between the French and native New Caledonians. I would have called it troubled. Maybe that has also since changed? Anyway, thanks for a lovely reminder of a great trip 🙂
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Hi! We were only there for a few days and were real tourists rather than discovering the country I have to confess! We were eating out, and found prices about the same or a bit less than NZ. We did wander around the market but I didn’t pay much attention to the prices – I was too busy looking to see what was on sale. We had read about the tensions between the native population and the French, but didn’t really feel any ourselves. We ended up at one point in Noumea being the only Europeans about, and didn’t feel threatened or uncomfortable (maybe as it was a Saturday afternoon and there were lots of families out shopping). Glad you had happy memories of New Caledonia! We certainly have and would love to go back and see a bit more.
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