Café Sidi Azizi

Like Café des Nattes, the place where we’re having our Monday breakfast today doesn’t serve food. So before going there, we first walk to a hole in the wall just around the corner from Café des Nattes where they sell two kinds of sweets: bric aux dates and bombalounis. The first is a pocket made out of fried dough filled with dates and the second is a kind of large doughnut made of fried dough. I order two bamboulinis and watch while the seller picks up a piece of dough from a large pot and throws it into an even larger frying pan with a flick of his wrist. Somehow he managed to create a hole in the dough during that single movement, because the sizzling dough turns into a hoop, which is then taken out of the oil and sprinkled with sugar. 

Rihanna Gaga is more interested in the small pools of water that have gathered between the cobblestones of the alley where we’re standing. She enjoys making the water splash by putting her foot in it and when my bamboulinis are finished, I have to take her by her hand to persuade her to come with me.

It’s still early, around 8:30, and as we walk down the main road of Sidi Bou Said, there are very few people. Several men in expensive looking suits are walking towards their cars further down - beyond the centre of town, in the direction of where we’re now coming from, some very luxurious villas are located, housing a significant part of Tunisia’s beau monde. We meet the waiter of the café du souq who is so fond of Rihanna Gaga – and who, as usual, stops to greet her extensively. An elderly man with a fez is equally enchanted by the little girl and chats with her for a while. Some souvenir shops are opening up, but most are still closed.

At a certain moment we turn left to walk through a large gate into a narrow, covered alley smelling of leather. We’ve now entered the ‘Souq Artisane’, a grand name for what is essentially a tourist bazar, consisting of a small maze of covered alleys and a large field beyond that, a sort of parking lot filled with stalls selling souvenirs. At the end of the main alley, Café Sidi Azizi is located, a pleasant looking affair with its terraces spread out over several little plateaus.

Apart from two men in the café, we’re the only guests. In fact, we’re the only ones in the entire bazar except for the people working here and a woman strolling around and checking out the fare of the one or two stalls that have opened up already. As I order a coffee, she’s entered negotiations about some pottery, but I can’t see whether she buys it or not.

Meanwhile, two cats have joined us. Like all animals these days, Rihanna Gaga is both fascinated and slightly scared of them. She will follow them but when they turn around she’ll run towards me. When she sits next to me and the cats approach us, she’ll greet them with an enthusiastic ‘hi!’, but when they install themselves on the bench next to us, she hides behind my back. 

Rihanna Gaga is in a very good mood. She laughs, climbs on the bench on which we’re sitting, climbs off it, walks around, talks to herself and returns to me to give me a cuddle or a smile every once in a while. I drink my coffee, eat my bamboulinis and order a tea. Beyond the bazar, the views over Tunis are quite impressive from here and I sit and enjoy the calmness of the early morning. Rihanna Gaga is getting tired, though, and after a while I pay and leave for home to put her to bed.