La Goulette and Sidi Bou Saïd
05/06/2012 19:48:13
Hi there from Barcelona!!
There was just a little part left from the book of Tunis in order to finish with this first phase of visits in this third season of our study. Concretely, we will talk about La Goulette and Sidi Bou Saïd today.
Just before going to La Goulette we had the occasion to visit the Cathedral of St. Louis. At the time of the Archduke there was a little church over there. This little church was demolished and the new cathedral was constructed; therefore, we are now in front of a new building now that did not existed at the time of the Archduke.
From the upper terrace of the church we can enjoy marvelous views of the punic harbour; of La Goulette; of the Cape Bon, the Hammam-Lif and Djebel Rsas far away; the laguna of Tunis and the city of Tunis.
Once at La Goulette we see that the old entrance channel has been closed and now there are several low bridges that cross it and make navigation impossible. We were unable to identify the building and the cemetery that the Archduke observed while entering the channel. Nowadays there some hotels and houses to both sides of the channel.
We had the change to wolk on the main Street of La Goulette in which there are plenty of little shops, and one can enjoy a very lively atmosphere in a beautiful colonial environement.
We also visited the beach at La Goulette. The preferred residence of the Bey just on the beach is not anymore there.
At the entrance of La Goulette, though, we can still see the fort. A part of it was the official residence of the Bey at La Goulette. We observed the walls from the outside.
We went to Sidi Bou Saïd because we had to find the little plastic end of our manta trawl, it was waiting for us at the captain office of the port.
At the center of Sidi Bou Saïd which is placed at around one hundred meters above the sea level, there are plenty of well designed shops. The houses are all painted in white and blue.
We could enter one of the shops which is placed in an old house that has been refurbished.
That´s all for the book of Tunis. We hope to be back in Tunis shortly with the objective to retake the boat, take it to Majorca and be able to continue with all the programmed visits of this third season of the NIXE III Project.
Best wishes!!
