Coconut Palm Square, Nouméa

Place des Cocotiers is a square in Noumea, located in the heart of its downtown area, on the western side of the peninsula. It is the real center of the city, a meeting place for many Nouméans and lined with shops. Its center, embodied by the Celestial Fountain, serves as the 0 point for the mileage of New Caledonia's roads. It is a rather large esplanade of about 4 ha, rectangular in shape, about 100 m wide and 400 m long, entirely pedestrian but bordered by several major arteries, mainly one-way.

Since 1977, cars had been circulating counter-clockwise around the square. However, a new traffic pattern in the downtown area was implemented between September and November 2008: the two streets bordering the square to the south and to the north now both direct traffic west toward the harbor, with a small two-way portion on Anatole-France Street along the southeast corner of the square. Similarly, the portions of Général-Mangin and Sebastopol now both run north-south. It is therefore no longer possible for a motorist to go all the way around the square.