And perhaps it’s the wine that sums it up; there is about the place that sort of looseness and sophistication, that come with wine, so that in spite of the excesses of the opposing forces, and the vicious cynicism of the government and its military, there is a boisterousness about the city and its people. The Algerians are opinionated and argumentative and noisily critical of their regime… and as a foreigner, one is welcomed effusively. People are proud of their country and want to share its beauty with foreign visitors. Tourism would be a great boon; it would put some money and governmental enthusiasm into the restoration and conservation of Algeria’s heritage sites. Now their wounds are healing, the Algerians would like to join in with the rest of the world.
Algiers was for long the capital of the Corsair industry, and was an important outpost of the far flung Ottoman Empire, which is what gives the city its rich racial mix; for the corsairs raided as far north as Iceland, taking six hundred bemused Icelanders to swell the population of the city. Add to these the slaves who were gathered from Black Africa; the Arabs, who swept through this part of the world in the seventh century under the banners of young Islam; stir in some Cornishmen, Spaniards and Newfoundlanders, and finally add the French, and you get as rich an ethnic mix as you could ask for.
So sitting with my coffee and searching in vain for the chocolate in my pain au chocolat, I was well entertained by watching the crowds that flowed past me. You see the odd headscarf, and even veils, more often on older women, but most of the girls are dressed with an unmistakably French chic – feminine and alluring, even as far as sexy, but without the more outrageous occidental touches. There are few beards amongst the men… there was a time when beard-wearers were attacked in the streets, on suspicion of being the hated fundamentalists.
‘There are no dogs here,’ I pointed out to Saïd, who was driving us at breakneck speed around the city. It was true, we had not seen a single dog… but just as I made this observation, a lone dog loped across the street.
