Tunisia: Beni Khiar, Kelibia, El-Haouaria in Cap Bon.

Our second day in Cap Bon includes Beni Khiar, Kelibia El-Haouaria and sleep in Tunis.

We enjoyed visiting Beni Khiar, a village 4 km east of Nabeul.  At the Cooperative des Tisserands el-Faouz, we learned how people weave beautiful products manually -with no electricity!- to this day.  The shop had many wooden weaving stations with mostly old weavers working using their hands and feet, while small cattle of mint tea quietly brewing behind them all day long.  It was simply impressive!  

Check out the huge roll of threads on the left side of Léo, and the smaller rolls on his right prepared from the huge roll.

Simon and Laïyane admiring some incredible manual works being made in front of our eyes.

Beautiful hand-made modern version of the traditional kasabias -rectangular cloaks- bought at the shop.

 

After Beni Khiar, we passed through Kelibia, and arrived at El-Haouaria for lunch.  The restaurant, La Daurade, has a breath taking seaside setting and known for their seafood.  From the open terrace, we had a view to the beautiful ocean, an old wooden ship transformed into a play boat, and endless cliffs along the coast line. 

Laïyane and Léo having a go at the old boat. 

A plate full of catch of the day to chose from. 

Fish on my plate.  Notice the evil laughing look on its face! I don't remember the evil fish from the presentation!

Léo checking out some shells on the water's edge. Later, we found a local lady picking some shells from there.

What a treat to run around freely by the ocean after the long ride in the car.  Kids ran around like happy goats before and after the meal.

Finding our hotel in the central part of Medina in Tunisia was quite a task.  It was simply impossible for tourists like us from Canada to find our hotel with or without a map.  Forget the even numbered houses on one side and odd numbers on the other.  Don't even think about straight streets to begin with.  We realized that many roads on the map were simply not wide enough for a car, and some roads may seem wide enough but they narrow at we pass through.  That's what exactly happened when we ended up in a tiny square in the Medina.  We felt like the road was closing on us, and found ourselves calling for help to get out! There was simply no way we could have continued through these narrow passages with our car.  How suffocating that driving experience was!

Finally arriving at our B&B in the central Medina of Tunis.  I look exhausted in this picture from the suffocating driving experience in the Medina.  We were happy to find ourselves in this historic house with lots of charms. 

Our room used to be a barn!  The owner has renovated it to make it into a beautiful guest room. Check out the magnificent ceiling!

Our bathroom in the room was an opened space, with a hand carved stone sink. The entire room had a stone heated floor.