Brazzaville rewards the traveller with no money. The Congo River view toward Kinshasa is free, Poto-Poto's grilled fish costs under 2,000 CFA, and the sapeurs parade in Bacongo every Sunday for the price of a taxi ride. Bring small notes.
The paved Corniche runs 3km along the Congo River from the Case de Gaulle toward the port, with Kinshasa's towers visible 4km across the water. Free and open at all hours; walk it before 10:00 while it is cool and the pirogues are still loading.
Roger Erell's 1949 green-tiled parabolic basilica, restored in 2011, has no entry fee. The vaulted brick nave without a single interior column is the best free architecture in Central Africa. Open daily roughly 07:00-18:00 between masses.
Founded 1951 by Pierre Lods, the courtyard studio where the Poto-Poto style was invented still has painters working under the mango trees. Wandering the yard and watching them paint costs nothing; canvases start around 15,000 CFA if you want one.
The Italian-marble mausoleum charges for the interior museum, but the surrounding formal gardens and river-facing terrace are free to walk. Locals come at dusk for the breeze off the Congo; the white marble goes pink at sunset.
Brazzaville's biggest market, named for the petrol station at its corner. Saka-saka (pounded cassava leaf), safou plums, smoked river fish and wax-print cloth by the pagne. Entry free; a 6-yard wax print runs 6,000-12,000 CFA depending on the stamp.
The row of charcoal grills at the market's north edge sells whole braised tilapia or capitaine with piment and fried plantain, served on paper. A full plate is 1,500-2,500 CFA, less than half of any restaurant in Centre-Ville.
Bacongo is the sapeur heartland and a free open-air museum of Congolese street life: tailors' workshops, ndombolo blasting from record stalls, barbers painting sign boards. Costs nothing to walk; shared taxi from Centre-Ville is 150 CFA.
Plastic-chair bars with speakers on the pavement serve Ngok' or Primus at 700-1,000 CFA, half the Centre-Ville price. Brochettes of goat from the grill outside cost 500 CFA a stick. The rumba starts loud around 19:00 and gets louder.
The riverside landing below the port where dugout pirogues load cassava and passengers for the islands. Watching the loading is free; a short paddle to a sandbank with a boatman is negotiable from about 3,000 CFA for the group.
Moungali's market feeds the northern quartiers: cassava bread (chikwangue) wrapped in leaves for 300 CFA, beans and rice from a bucket for 1,000 CFA, ginger-and-lime tangawisi for 200 CFA. Busiest and freshest between noon and 14:00.
Where the Congo River breaks into whitewater below the Pool Malebo, 10km southwest of the centre. The riverbank viewpoint is free; the riverside bars charge about 1,000 CFA for a beer. Shared taxi from Bacongo runs roughly 1,000-1,500 CFA each way.
On Sunday afternoons the sapeurs gather outside the Bacongo churches and bars in full Yamamoto and Weston, walking the pavement as a runway. Watching is free and welcomed — the whole point of the S.A.P.E. is being seen.