FIELD BINI: Abidjan's green break — our getaway on the margins of FEMUA 2022!
In May 2022, after days of FEMUA — the basses that make Anumabo vibrate, the crowd, the lights, the energy of Abidjan that never sleeps — there comes a morning when we need to hear something other than the sono. So we take the road. And less than an hour later, the loose bitumen taken, the city fades... and the silence becomes green.
In May 2022, after days of FEMUA — the basses that make Anumabo vibrate, the crowd, the lights, this energy of Abidjan that never sleeps — there comes a morning when we need to hear something other than the sono. So we take the road. And less than an hour later, the loose bitumen taken, the city fades... and the silence becomes green. We are at Domaine Bini, and we are welcomed as in the village: a fresh coconut, a glass of bandji, and this smile that says "rest, you have arrived".
The Domaine Bini, in reality, are two worlds that respond. On the forest side, at km 51 of the highway of the North, stretch 70 hectares of an old family plantation: primary forest, leaning heveas, cocoa trees whose journey of the chocolate cabosse is followed. On the lagoon side, in Koffakoi, between Abidjan and Bingerville, the Aghien Miroite lagoon, clean and quiet, bordered by mangroves and neuphras. Two sites, one promise: to contemplate, taste, enjoy — that is the home motto.
Behind this little paradise, there is a man and a history of returning to the roots. Jean-Marc Bini, a former banker who passed through Canada, decided in 2015 to revive the land acquired by his father in 1974 and left it in waste after his disappearance. A crazy bet that became a reference: presented as the pioneer of ecotourism in Côte d'Ivoire, he has since opened ten estates across the country and welcomes more than 15,000 visitors every year.
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And then we see the place. The educational hike under the canopy, where the guide tells the secrets of the plants. The "Fine of the 10 fingers", served in leaves, where attieke, alloco and braised fish eat as in the past: with the hands and with the heart. The clay bath that makes the whole tribe laugh. And on the lagoon side, the canoe that slides between the mangroves, the zipline that sends you directly into the water, and, in the evening, the possibility of sleeping on the water, in floating cabin, dinner with candles and tales under the stars.
It is also a place that can receive: business days, team building, association getaways find a decor that no hotel can copy. And its foundation defends the "Nature-Culture" couple until the traditional festivals of the country — exactly the spirit we hunt with Festival Explorer: a festival never occurs only on stage. Around FEMUA, Abidjan has its green backstage, and it's called Bini. Explorers, when music stops, that's where it continues to resonate. It's up to you to listen.
— Moïse 1er, the Festival Explorer