Once a sleepy colonial capital, Yaoundé is now a bustling urban centre of meandering streets and undulating hills, offering an unusually cool climate, excellent museums and really good grilled chicken. Ave Kennedy is the main commercial corridor. At its northern end are the Place Kennedy and the Centre Artisinal, a giant tent filled with local artisans and their handicrafts. The lively African quarters of Messa, Mokolo and Briqueterie, a few kilometres north-west of downtown, are where you'll find many of the city's unlicensed chicken houses, serving the best grilled chicken this side of the Côte d'Ivoire .
A few kilometres north of the city centre is the Benedictine Monastery's Musée d'Art Cameroonais, a highlight of any visit to the capital. Despite its small size, it's got one of the best collections of Cameroonian art in the world, including masks, bowls and Bamoun bronze pipes. Even the monastery's chapel is decorated with a beautiful array of local textiles and crafts.
A few kilometres west of downtown is the Quartier Melen, home to the Musée d'Art Nègre. The museum's collection includes Bamoun pipes from north-west Cameroon, Baoulé textiles from Côte d'Ivoire and Congolese-Zaïrian masks, as well as pieces from Algeria and Ethiopia . Melen is also home to the Paroisse de N'Djong Melen, a church whose open-air Sunday mass you shouldn't miss. For over two hours, a priest recites the mass in Ewondo to the accompaniment of African drumming, dancing and singing.