We left Ksar Ghilane early in them morning. We were headed to the final stop on our private tour, the island of Djerba. There would be a couple of stops along the way. We were headed to the town of Tataouine....yes, for those Star Wars fans, there really is a city name Tataouine. We traveled through some pretty inhospitable areas.....and yet, people have been living here for centuries. We passed by several ruins of Roman fortifications along the way.
Outside of Tataouine are several Berber hill villages. The most popular is called Chenini....yep, there's the Star Wars connection again. The village is known for it's distinctive white Mosque up on the hill.
We took about an hour to walk around the village. Many of the older homes built into the hillside had been abandoned and turned into storage.
Soon enough we made our way back to our transport and headed off to Tataouine. Since it was market day, the place was hopping.
Ben walked us to this little bakery.
Like Kairouan and Makroud, Tataouine also has it's special pastry called Corne de Gazelle, the gazelle's horn.
The pastry is in the shape of a gazelle's horn. I thought this was very nicely flavored, almonds and sesame seeds gave the confection a nice nuttiness. Like almost all classic Tunisian desserts the pastry was doused with a nice bit of honey. The Missus didn't care for it....I'm thinking it was the sesame seeds.
While Ben had a seat at one of the coffee shops, the Missus and I started walking around the market area. Here are some photos.
You know what this shop sells, right?
I was really enjoying the coffee culture in Tunisia and we decided to take a break at one of the coffee houses....it was a nice stop and gave us some time to take in the environment and people watch. They call espresso "cafe express" in Tunisia.
It was pretty calm driving from here on out, as we made our way to the island of Djerba. Soon we were driving over the causeway to Djerba which was the last leg of our tour. It had been a pretty hectic couple of days, but I was glad we did this.....there's just so much history in Tunisia.
love your market posts, Kirk :)
Posted by: kat | Sunday, 14 October 2012 at 04:32 AM
Thanks so much Kat!
Posted by: Kirk | Sunday, 14 October 2012 at 07:33 AM
Oooh, that camel's head!
So when exactly was Chenini referenced in the Star Wars movies (Episode IV - A New Hope, which is the best in my opinion)? I had to look that up because I didn't know...
Posted by: caninecologne | Sunday, 14 October 2012 at 07:50 AM
Hey CC - Chenini is one of the two moon of Tatooine. Kind of interesting...I guess GL was really taken with the names and this area of Tunisia.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Chenini
Posted by: Kirk | Sunday, 14 October 2012 at 07:37 PM
hi kirk - yeah, that's the info i looked up. I disliked that GL added "extra's" to the original trilogy and unceremoniously added hayden christensen in to flashback scene at the end of ROTJ. blasphemy!
Posted by: caninecologne | Sunday, 14 October 2012 at 09:55 PM
That is a great picture.
Posted by: Rodzilla | Monday, 15 October 2012 at 01:02 AM
LOL CC....
Hi Roddy - I'm glad you liked it. It made it pretty clear what kind meat they sold, right?
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 15 October 2012 at 06:09 AM