Farewell Tunisia

After a wonderful week of sightseeing and relaxing our week drew to a close. We made a couple of fantastic friends there, Pierre-Yves and Valentine expecting their first baby. It was great to have a beer buddy and people to catch up with at mealtimes. They don't live too far from us so perhaps we'll meet them agin before too long...

Well, I hope you've enjoyed sharing our memories. Don't forget to keep up to date with our lives in France at www.anenglishmaninlatranche.blogspot.com .

A Berber grain store

On the way back to the hotel for our final night we stopped at this grain store once used by the Berber people when they were true nomads. It is now illegal to be nomadic in Tunisia, for reasons such as education and health care, but we were told that many adults still practise a nomadic lifestyle for a few months each year.

Chenini

As we're nearing the end of our stay in Tunisia I will treat you to a bumper bundle of photos of Chenini, q mind-blowing ancient settlement perched high on a hilltop ridge. It was mainly used as a fortified granary by the local nomads (Berber) but is now very much on the tourist trail.

A perfect blue set off the fantastic sky-line

We visited a troglodyte house...

...with a very opportune mirror in the wall!

There wasn't much to eat for the goats...

...and camel

Look how many levels this house had!

A closer view of the mosque

The open desert...

...with the Beber's burial site just below

Most of the town is uninhabited now...

...but we found a couple of locals!

The market at Tatouine

'Aller à Tatouine' is an expression used in French to mean 'go to the end of the world'. Some people also refer to Tatouine for doing hard labour as there used to be a penal military unit there. For Star Wars fans, Tatooine (correct spelling) was Luke Skywalker's home planet, but for us it was a colourful market with wonderful spicy aromas and colourful tagines.

Forget the frowning old man, just look at the chili peppers!

4X4 on the dunes

Living in La Tranche you'd think we'd be used to the sand but the vastness of the desert was breathtaking, not to mention the ochre colour. It was also pretty hot already at 9.30 am!

This was OUR 4X4. Luckily there was help to hand!

The colour of the sand is very real

Three nomads

We loved the trail this beetle made!