The intersection between tourism and literature offers novel opportunities both for literary critics and ethnographers to deeply understand the tourist experience in a postcolonial, global Africa. Taking Argondico's Le Toubab de Saint-Louis, I propose to study the intricate trajectory of the central character, a French journalist, in her transition from a professional traveller, a tourist, into a resolved permanent expatriate in Saint-Louis of Senegal. Looking for her experiential journey marked by unpredictability, culture confusion, and the quest for a lifestyle, this paper analyzes the complex nature of contemporary travellers' motivation and navigation across transnational cultural borders. I will revisit concepts of tourism, travelling, migration/expatriate, emphasizing how gender and race affect the character's unique, but generalizable experience in her choices to move from Paris to Saint-Louis of Senegal. As a conclusion, I will argue, using examples from my ethnographic research in Saint-Louis, that it is crucial to examine the North-South flow of migrants. This special combination will allow us to theorize a more accurate postcolonial representation of Africa as a space of hope for individuals from the developed world in search of ontological answers irreducible to material fulfillment.