"Cafés" and barbershops
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Lo que dice el Arxiduc:
“Nor is there a lack of cafés within the bazaars; they tend to be full of Tunisians who delight in drinking very strong coffee from small, fragile cups. They are seated, placidly doing nothing, some with their legs crossed, others lying on side benches, with large rings of smoke rising up from their enormous pipes. The barbershops with their mirrors are also interesting, some with primitive paintings of sailboats; the Orientals shave their heads without concern for the people who stop and stare.”
Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria, Tunis. Ein bild aus dem nordafrikanischen leben, Heinrich Mercy, Prague, 1870
Datos proyecto Nixe III:
Today, there are only a few cafés left in the medina (old quarter). The new city built up by the French houses the majority of cafés. The most elegant are found along Habib Bourguiba Avenue. Some still maintain the flavor of old Tunisian cafés, while others are more modern like those found in any European city.
In the more modern cafés, we see both men and women. In the more traditional ones, like that occurring in many parts of the country, we only see a majority of men.
In terms of barbershops, we found an area within the old medina where several are located. After a long conversation with one of the barbers, a descendent of Andalusian Moors expelled from the Iberian Peninsula after the Catholic Conquest, he offered to trim our beards, but we left it for another time. We’ll have to go back to Tunis…
Photos
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