Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Hamma Hannachi
Published on 2024-03-31 09:58:01
The street of Holland in front of the cathedral starts from Habib Bourguiba Avenue, it houses the French embassy whose walls occupy half of the street. The Golden House hotel is located on the opposite side of the sidewalk in front of the public entrance, a stone’s throw from the central market. It was a prosperous time for cultural activities on this street, not far from the train station, there was a lovely bookstore named Alif, dynamic, serving as an exhibition space and meeting place. It was a time when, day and night, in summer and winter, Tunis sang and danced.
Standing on 4 floors in a colonial-style building, La Maison dorée was managed by an active and very friendly French woman with her equally agreeable son; the hotel residents were mostly French, the geographical location near the Medina, the good upkeep of the establishment, the quality of the service, and word of mouth gave this address a golden reputation. The decor of its restaurant overlooking Holland Street is tasteful, light woodwork, a gentle atmosphere, dishes reminiscent of those of grand restaurants.
Les Marguerites was always busy at noon, its clientele mostly comprised embassy staff; the room was elegant, with a fairly short and simple menu, three or four cooked dishes offered daily in addition to fixed dishes (the chef sourced from the market, indicating the freshness of the products), I remember a delicious pan-fried oyster mushrooms, seafood, charcuterie, meats, choice vegetables, and very decent cooked dishes.
What brings back these memories and makes me recall this address and why now? The death on March 21st of Frédéric Mitterrand. The illustrious Franco-Tunisian spent part of the year in Tunisia; when he was not in Hammamet or Paris, he invariably stayed at La Maison dorée in Tunis, always in the same room on the 2nd floor.
It was spring, at lunchtime, my late friend Bady Ben Naceur, who managed the Culture section of La Presse, invited me to the restaurant of La Maison dorée, where Frédéric Mitterrand was waiting for us. Fredo (as his friends in the entertainment world called him) was good company, undeniably polite, a good eater with delicious anecdotes, brimming with ideas and projects. I expressed my admiration for his short and poignant work “Love Letters in Somalia”, he appreciated it, we met two more times in Tunis, another time in Paris where we had coffee after a Tunisian-French meeting at the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
About ten years ago, I wrote an article about La Maison dorée, I suggested to the son, who took over the hotel after his mother’s passing, to put Mitterrand’s name on the door of his favorite room. “Times have changed, so have the clients, in the evening, around the hotel, the smoke of the hookah rises to the rooms, today everyone doesn’t care about the details in a hotel, thank you for your kind suggestion…”.
Today, the building is undergoing restoration, it has been years since the hotel closed, a local bank has purchased the building.
Read the original article(French) on La Presse Tunisie
