I was a tourist in Tunisia the week before the Bardo Museum shooting

 I got taken to Tunisia for a week for a birthday present. The last time I went to Tunisia was over 20 years ago when the children were small. I remember the 2 day safari trip where FH got a tick on his wrist and one of the other guests had iodine and got it off him. I remember FH refusing to dress up in Arab costumes to go on the camels and the elderly camel driver spitting at us because the tip was not big enough. I remember the cave houses and the huge salt lake with the flowers of salt in all different colours. I remember a general antipathy from the staff towards us.

Some things were the same this time round. They still have suspended cows and sheep heads outside butchers. The 2 day safari was still running except a drive in a 4×4 is included in the desert, but you have to pay extra for the camels.

Other things were very different. Our tour guide put this down to the revolution against injustice and poor living conditions, especially in the South which ended January 14 2011 when the President of 23 years, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, resigned.

In part because of an enormous tourist trade, Tunisia is one of the top 5 wealthiest African countries. In Tunis virtually everyone seemed to be wearing western clothes, and the veil & headscarf is no more apparent than in London. We visited the mosaic museum there (Tunisian mosaics are better preserved than those in Rome because of the climate), Carthage (the most uninspiring world heritage site I have seen to date) and Sidi Bou Said which is a real picture postcard blue shutters and doors type of place. Later in the week we went to the Roman amphitheatre of El Jem, Karouain and Monastir.   In Karouain we visited the mosque built in 670 AD; one of the most famous in Africa and among the oldest in the world. Afterwards we were taken to watch a film about ‘the History of Tunisia’, but really it was a film about the History of Islam. It was interesting how for many people in the group, who were my age or older, it was the first time they had heard the story.

The interface between Joe Tourist (I am generalising on what I saw), ‘Christian/Atheist/Humanist’ and Mohammed Hotel Staff ‘Muslim’ Tunisian style was interesting. The front line staff were not all male as they had been last time I visited, nor did all the women have their heads covered. There was a lot of abundant glossy brown hair, Chanel red lipstick and marked eye liner, not to mention a state of white teeth that had had the whitening treatment so the tips could not be too bad. It was off season and very cheap so for most of the week a wide range of English people were flying in from Manchester, Birmingham and Gatwick. They obviously came on a regular basis as the staff knew them and there was much embracing and friendliness. The staff were lovely – just the right combination of friendly and professional.

The hotel was the all-inclusive variety. Tunisian wine was flowing, though one night the cork screw in the restaurant was broken and all the bottles were gaily served corked! There was generally zero tension around the drinking of alcohol.

Since I have got back I have been reflecting on how the majority of ‘ordinary’ people, whatever their faith, find ways to make connections and agree common ground. Tunisia is 90% + Muslim. It was neither hidden, nor preached.

We stayed in Port El Kantoui at the Riviera Hotel which is part of the Dessole group owned by a Turkish company with Russian clientele in mind, but apparently Russians are not travelling en masse at the moment. I would recommend it. On my birthday I found a beautiful bouquet in the room.

The female clientele gave me further pause for thought. The question I asked myself was, when do older women, however lovely their personalities, stop displaying enormous, trembling masses of wrinkly bosom cantilevered on balcony bras?   Is this truly a good look? It’s a dilemma for me between supporting growing old with panache, but also with some grace. Less is so often more.

Jan Moir also covered this issue in an article in The Daily Mail on Friday 20th about Theresa May showing cleavage in the House of Commons on Budget Day!